!V, S, J. NI< 



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# LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 






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THE 



EASTERN QUESTION 



IN PROPHECY. 



SIX LECTURES 



ON 



THE RISE AND DECLINE OF MAHOMETANISM, AND THE 

EVENTS TO FOLLOW, AS PRESENTED IN THE 

PROPHECIES OF ST. JOHN, 

BY 

REV. SAM'L J. NICCOLLS, D. D., 

PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTEKIAN CHURCH, 



ST. LOUIS, MO. 

0\O/^ lS7f. ^r^\- 




ST. LOUIS: 
liEMOINE BROTHERS, 

1877. 



r 



A 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by 

LEMOINE BROTHERS, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at ^Vashingtou, D. C, 



\ 



n 



CO:XTE]STS 



The Eise of Marometanism, 



XjIegttj:^:^ ii. 

The Turkish Power, . . . . . 21^ 

The Decline of the Turkish Empire, . . 47. 

XilECTTJX^S I-V. 

The Kings of the East, . . . . .61. 

Steps Toward the Esd. . . . . .77. 

The Millennial Era. . . . . .95. 

(iii) 



PREFACE 



These lectures were not, in the first instance, pre- 
pared with a \4ew to publication ; and it is owing more 
to the partial judgment of friends, than to any opinion 
of my own as to their value, that they now appear in 
print. I could find no time to re-write them ; so they 
are given to the public in the form in which they were 
delivered from the pulpit. As the}' were prepared from 
week to week, and in the midst of the pressing duties 
of a city pastorate, there will doubtless be found in 
them Pome\iews and interpretations, which, upon more 
careful consideration, I would wish to modify. But 
whatever crudeness of opinion may be found in these 
pages, I am the more convinced that the views of 
prophecy presented in them are in the main correct, 
because they are substantial^ those held by the wisest 
and best writers on prophecy. The excellency of any 
right interpretation of Scripture does not lie in its nov- 
elty, but in its truthfulness ; and surely it does not 
arg"ue ao;ainst its truthfulness that it is old ; that it has 

(V) 



VI PREFACE. 

been presented again and again by careful and faithful 
studentH of the Word of God ; and that many different 
minds have reached the same conclusions in their in- 
vestigations. ]My aim in preparing these discourses, 
was to present in as plain and brief a form as possible, 
what I believed to be the true application of some of 
the prophecies of St. John, especially with reference 
to the * 'Eastern Question." The subject at least, is one 
of profound interest to all who love the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and pray for the coming of His kingdom. 
Statesmen as well as Christians are brought to feel that 
the w^orld is on the eve of great changes. All look 
anxiously for what to-morrow shall bring. The present 
centur}^ has already been marked by a most tremendous 
and significant event, — the downfall of the Papacy ; or 
the overthrow of the temporal power of the Pope. If to 
this shall succeed the overthrow of the ''false prophet," 
the power of Mahometanism, w^e may well conclude that 
the world is at the threshold of a new era. All who 
love truth, and righteousness, and liberty, will rejoice 
in the speedy overthrow of ecclesiastical despotism, 
and degrading superstition. Surely then it ought to 
cause them to lift up their eyes in joyful hope, to learn 
from the "sure word of prophecy," not only that these 
"beastly" powers are doomed to destruction, but that 
the time of their judgment is at hand. 

Those who believe the Second Advent of Christ to 



PREFACE. Vll 

be pre-milleiiaial, will object to the views presented in 
the lecture on the Millennial Era. It is true that the 
doctrine of the pre-millennial advent of our Lord has 
been held from the da3^s of the apostles until the pres- 
ent ; and that now it is widely advocated by men emi- 
nent for their piety and learning. But while at the 
out-start of my studies, I was stronglj^ disposed to ac- 
cept it, I must confess that after a careful examination 
of both sides of the question, it appears to me that the 
weight of scriptural testimony is on the side of the com- 
monly received doctrine of tlie Church, which is, that 
the second coming of Christ in visible glor}^ will be at- 
tended b}^ the resurrection of the dead, the final judg- 
ment, the end of the world, and the glorification of the 
Church. The fact of the true, real, and visible coming 
of our Lord a second time, in glory, is so plainlj^ stated 
in tlie Scriptures, that there is no room for doubt or un- 
certaint3^ It is the '^blessed lio{>e'' of the Church. 
But Christians ma}^ honestly differ in their views as to 
the time and manner of His coming. 

If what I have written on this, as well as on other 
matters of prophecy, will lead any to a careful studj^ 
of the Word of God, or confirm the faith of those who 
are doubtful and perplexed, or comfort those who are 
distressed b^^the myster^^of iniquity, or stir up God's 
believing children to more exultant hoi)e and abund- 
ant labors, I shall count myself rew^arded, and thank 



VIU PREFACE. 

God. Ill the preparation of these discourses I freely 
acknowledge myself indebted to the labors of others, es- 
pecially of such scholarly writers as Bengel, Barnes, 
Hodge, Newton and Cunningham. Regretting the im- 
perfections of my labors, I send this little volume forth, 
in the hope that what I have written may benefit those 
who read, and throw across their pathway the glad 
light that shines from the future, as seen through Jesus 

Christ, the only Savior of men. 

S. J. N. 
St. Louis, May, 1877. 




Lecture I. 

^l|aIi0iti^iEritsin< 



[Rev. 9 : 1—11.] 

AND the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto 
the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 

2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of 
the pit, as the smoke of a great furuace; and the sun and the air were 
darkened hy reason of the smoke of the pit. 

3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto 
them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 

4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of 
the earth, neither any green thing, neither any ti'ee; hut only those naen 
which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. 

5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, hut that 
they should be tormented five months : and their torment was as the tor- 
ment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. 

6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and 
shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. 

7 And the shapes of the locusts z^'ere like unto horses prepared unto 
battle; and on their heads lyere as it were crowns like gold, and their 
faces were as the faces ot men. 

8 And they had hair as the hair of women , and their teeth were as the 
teeth ot lions. 

9 And they had breast-plates, as it were breast-plates of iron; and the 
sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses run- 
ning to battle. 

10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in 
their tails ; and their poAver was to hurt men five months. 

11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottom- 
less pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the 
Gjeek tongue hath his name ApoUyon. 

IN proposing to address you concerning the ' 'Eastern 
Question," as viewed in the light of prophecy, 
I do not wish to gratify an idle cuiiosity ; nor yet 
to lead you away from those great truths of God's 
Word, which should always be the subject of the pul- 
pit, to mere secular themes. On the contrary, my 
desire is to confirm your faith in the Scriptures, as 



10 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

a revelatioD from God, and to show you how all 
things are guided by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the 
estabhshment of His kingdom, and the fulfillment of 
all the promises He has made. 

We as christians, believe and know that all the 
events of human history, from the migration of a 
feeble tribe of savages to the overturning of mighty 
empires, are directed by Him. Confused as earthl}^ 
affairs may appear to our view, tangled as the threads 
of history may seem, we know from the Word of 
God, that there is a clear, definite, and well ordered 
plan running through all. Just as out of the chaos 
in the beginning, God brought the well ordered and 
beautiful cosmos, so now He is building from the 
confusion of the present, a kingdom of righteousness, 
and truth and peace, which shall stand forever, — a 
kingdom that can not be shaken nor pass away. 
All things move towards the predestined end ; all yield 
and work together under that mighty power, where- 
by He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. 

For this reason all of the movements of the pres- 
ent, as well as the events of the past, have a pecu- 
liar interest for the believer. He looks at them, 
not as a politician or a statesman, but as a member 
of that kingdom in whose behalf they are working. 
With each passing event, no matter whether full of 
glory or terror, he can lift up his head with joyful 
confidence, for he knows that redemption draws nigh. 
Wars and revolutions are to him the echoes of the 
footfalls of the coming King of Glory. While this is 
true in general of the whole course of history, there 
are certain events which have a special interest to 



THE SARACEN POWER. 11 

christians, because they have been predicted by the 
Word of God. Tliey are like great headlands and 
lighthouses marked down on a chart, which, when they 
come in ^iew after lono; leag;ues of sailino* over wastes 
of water, assure the voj^ager that he is on the right 
course to the desired haven. 

For the comfort and encouragement of His people, 
the Lord Jesus revealed under the new dispensation, 
as under the old, certain great events in the future, 
which when seen in history would be recognized as 
the fulfillment of His word, and as landmarks b}' 
the way. These events are so revealed, that they can 
be recognized with certainty only when they come to 
pass ; but they are also so revealed in their general 
character, as to lead us to look in the direction in 
which they shall appear, and to awaken the confident 
expectation of their coming to pass. With this sure 
word of prophecy in our hands, we are like a com- 
pany of voyagers at sea examining their chart. The 
vessel is enshrouded with fog ; no sun is seen over- 
head ; no stars give their friendly light to help con- 
jecture as to the course. Still, the vessel under 
skillful guidance has kept on her way. From the 
chart they conjecture that they ought to be near such 
a headland and lighthouse. Some are confident that 
they at last see them ; — but what seemed like a shore 
turns out to be a bank of clouds ; and what they 
thought was the shining of the lantern from the light- 
house, proves to be the light from a vessel befogged 
like their own. But in due time the skillful captain 
who is not misled nor deceived, brings them in full 
view of the real headland and lighthouse, and the 



12 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

chart by which they had sailed, is confirmed. So 
here, special events are predicted, that when they do 
come to pass, we ma^^ know that our course is home- 
ward to the desired haven. 

One of these prophetical events, as we gather from 
the Divine chart, is now before us. We know the 
general direction in which to look for it, and, in the 
main, its character ; but in our eagerness and ignorance 
we may mistake something else for it ; we may cry too 
soon, '4o! there it is!" and a nearer view show that 
to be a cloud, which fancy called a realit}' . But cer- 
tain it is, that in the fullness of time the unerring Cap- 
tain, who guides all, shall bring us in sight of it ; and 
men shall say, "it has come to pass according to the 
W'Ord of the Lord." 

But what is it that we , are to expect ? Can w^e so 
learn the order of events from the divine plan, 
as to declare with confidence what next shall appear 
in the succession of landmarks ? 

There has now come before the world what is called 
"the Eastern Question." It is evidently of no small 
importance, for it agitates the courts and cabinets of 
all Europe. It is not a new question, for ever since the 
time of the Crusades, it has been vexing Europe ; 
it has already cost millions of lives and untold treas- 
ures. In spite of all treaties and compromises, it 
again appears before the world, demanding a solution. 
Why is it that all eyes are looking in the same 
direction ? What concentrates so much interest about 
a certain territory in the East? This question locates 
itself in a region that has comparatively little to make 
it desirable in the way of wealth and commerce. Ages 



THE SAKACEX POWER. 13 

of misrule and oppression liave ruined the land that 
was once the seat of the world's empire ; and its 
inhabitants are wretched and degraded indeed. But 
most significantly it involves the future of the land of 
promise and prophecj^ — the fate of Constantinople 
and the Turks involves the destinj^ of Palestine. Give 
England or France the Holy Land, and it is a matter 
of compai^tive indifference who rules at Constantinople. 
Palestine is the key to the whole position. The region 
between the Euphrates and the Nile, occupying such 
a remarkable position in the history of the past, and 
in the development of God's purposes with men, 
again rises as a central point in human affairs. 
Across it lies the future pathwaj^ of the world's trade. 
It is the road to the distant East. The power that 
acquires it, whether it be England, France or Russia, 
has the Gibraltar of Asia, and is for the time mistress 
of the world. 

This question not onty touches the land of proj)hecy, 
but it also concerns the nation of prophecy, — that 
pecuhar people who for eighteen centuries have been an 
anomaly in the world's history, and who without a 
country and wandering in all lands as in exile, 
have witnessed the rise and fall of nations and empires, 
and yet remain imperishable in their sorrow. How 
comes it that expectation is alive among them, and 
busy rumor speaks of their return to the land of 
Abraham and David? Men may account for all this 
simply on the ground of natural feeling and ambition ; 
they may look at it as a question involving "the bal- 
ance of power," or stirred up by the rivalry of nations : 
but one thing all agi^ee in — it is full of tremendous 



14 THE EASTERN QUESTION. * 

results, and its solution will mark an era in history. 

In viewing this subject in the light of prophecy, let 
me say, once for all, that while prophecy is sure, 
man's application of it is not. Men have made many 
false interpretations of it, and will still make them 
through ignorance or design. It becomes him who 
would interpret it, to do it with humility and honesty. 
A minister m applying it, cannot alwaj^s speak with the 
same positive confidence, as when he warns sinners of 
the wrath to come, and proclaims the necessity of 
faith in Christ in order to salvation. 

It is not for us to know the times and seasons 
beforehand, with arithmetical accuracy, lest faith 
should be lost in sight, and the discipli?ie of waiting, 
and hope, and limitation be lost to us. There was a 
world of good sense in the homely advice of an old 
Scotchman to his pastor, who had announced a series 
of lectures on the Revelation, "Trot along minister 
among the seven churches, but when you come to the 
seals and trumpets drive canny." Let us try to find 
out what is certain and reasonable, and not venture 
beyond our depth in unknown things. 

(1.) In the Revelation, we have what is admitted 
by all christians, to be a prophetic account of the 
future of the church of God, from the age of the 
writer until the glorious end of redemption. Part of 
this revelation is confirmed by the testimony of the 
ancient prophets, and especially by Daniel. Part of 
it is already verified by history, — enough at least, to 
confirm every candid reader, both of history and of 
this Book, in the belief that all that remains unfulfilled 
of St. John's prophecies, shall certainly come to pass. 



THE SAK AC EX POWER. 15 

(2.) In this revelation we have an order of events 
described. As for example, there is the opening of 
the -'seals" in their order: there is the sounding of the 
' 'trumpets" in their order. These manifestl}^ signify 
certain events, or rather periods in which certain events 
come to pass. We know also that there is an order 
of events in history. Now if we can take this book 
of prophecy, and placing it along side the book of 
history, find that the order of events and the descrip- 
tion of them as given in each book, agree one with the 
other, surely we are justified in saying not only that 
the prophecy is true, but also, that what remains in it, 
as yet unfulfilled, will come to pass in the order and 
manner described. This is what I propose to do with 
this ''Eastern Question:" — take the facts of history 
and place them along side the prophecy; and then 
you must judge for yourselves as to the correspondence. 
In doing this, you will be able also to draw conclusions 
as to the way in which the remaining part of the pre- 
dictions is to be fulfilled. We might proceed to take 
up immediately, that part of the Revelation which, as 
all biblical scholars affii^m, applies to the Mahometan 
power in the East, and from it, attempt to forecast the 
issue of the present struggle. But it is only when we 
come to see that this part of the prophecy is one of a series 
preceding it, which has already had its fulfillment in 
history, that what by the first method would only be a 
plausible interpretation, becomes a settled comiction. 

The best interpretation of prophecy is that made in 
the light of its ]3ast fulfillment. Our wisest course 
then, is to trace the "Eastern Question" from the 
beginning. 



16 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

In the ninth chapter of the Revelation, we have the 
record of the sounding of the fifth trumpet heralding 
a new judgment that was to come upon the earth. 
What followed is described in tlie language of symbols : 
it must be remembered too, that as St. John employs 
Old Testament or biblical imagery, we are to find the 
meaning of his symbols and figures within the Bible 
and not outside of it. 

'^I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth.'" A 
''star" is the emblem of a religious teacher and ruler. 
Thus in the prophecy of Balaam we read, — ''a star shall 
come out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of 
Israel." The ministers of the seven churches are 
represented by stars — Rev. 1: 20. Jesus Christ is the 
"bright and morning star;" the one that leads and 
outshines all the rest. But in this case the prophet 
sees a ''falling star" or meteor, — the striking symbol 
of the brilliant and destructive career of some great 
false teacher and leader. Its origin seemed to be in the 
heavens among the stars, but after all, it was earth 
born ; its brilliant pathway through the skies created 
wonder and admiration, and enkindled superstitious 
awe and terror, — but, at last it vanished in the earth. 
Its ignoble end proclaimed its true nature. ^''To him 
■was given the key of the bottomless pit;'^ that is, of the 
abode of the powers of evil and darkness. Mark the 
expression, "was given;" — -the key was not his by 
right, but in the development of God's purposQ he w^as 
to use it. The powers of darkness are under the di^dne 
control, nor can they rage or go forth to destroy save 
as God permits. In his providential government He 
suffers the rise of wicked men into power, and the un- 



THE SAKACEX POWER. 17 

loosing of the forces of hell, as a judgment upon men 
for theii; impenitency and unbelief. '-'•He opened the 
bottomless 'pit.''' This declares the mission of the one 
sjanbolized b.y the meteor, to be chiefly that of a false 
religious teacher. Through his instrumentality, a new 
delusion, brought about not b}" perverting existing 
truths, but as it were, direct from the bottomless pit, 
is to come forth amons; men. His was not the blessed 
work of binding the powers of darkness, but rather, to 
unloose them, and so prepare the wa}^ for a flood of 
error to cover the world. '•'And there arose smoke 
out of the pit^ as the smoke of a great furaace.'' 
Here we have the apt emblem of religious error 
or a false revelation. It is something that darkens ' 
the ''air" and the ''sun." It shuts out the older and 
divine light, "the sun," by perverting the very medium, 
"the air," through which men receive it. It is a revela- 
tion from the pit such as hell might well delight in. 
It is also, evidently an error of great power, spreading 
far and wide; it rises as "the smoke of a great fur- 
nace." Gen. 19: 28. Out of this "smoke" came 
' 'locusts upon the earth,''' This is the symbol of some- 
thing \4sible and tangible : they are born out of the 
smoke ; created and animated by this error from the 
pit. It was customary with the prophets to compare 
a vast invading host, to those swarms of locusts so 
common and so dreaded in the east. Nah. 3: 16. 
Joel. 2 : 4, 5. 

As we read the description here given by St. John, 
we cannot doubt that it is the picture of a vast horde 
or host of warriors going forth on their mission of con- 
quest. The symbol employed, not only locates the 



18 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

field of their conquests in the East, the region of the 
locusts, but it also suggests the country from wliich 
they come. Arabia was the home of the locusts, and 
the people of the east associated them with that region, 
just as we do oranges with the south, or grasshoppers 
with tlie plains. The sceptical Volney wliose writings 
Gibbon praises so highty, says, ''the inhabitants of 
Syria have remarked that locusts came constantly from 
the desert of Arabia. ' ' In Arabian writings the locust 
is introduced as the national emblem of tire Ishmael- 
ites. The warriors described in the vision are like 
locusts as to their origin, their multitude and the 
manner of their going forth. But there are two 
remarkable exceptions. "7i^ ivas commanded them that 
they should not hurt the grass of the earthy neither any 
green thing ^ . neither any tree,'^ Men are their pre3^ 
''And they had a. Mng over them,'' The very reverse 
of this is true of the ordinary locusts : — Prov. 30 ; 27. 
They were '•'•like unto horses prepared for battle,'' This 
at once suggests the idea of a vast body of cavalry 
going forth to war. They wore on their heads, '•'•as it 
were,, crowns like gold:" it is literally ''diadems." 
Locusts are bald ; but these were distinguished by a 
peculiar headdress which appeared like a diadem of a 
yellow or golden color. Their power to torment and 
plague was limited to ''-five months :" thatis according to 
the usual method of reckoning prophetic times, a period 
of one hundred and fifty years. 

There are many interesting and suggestive details in 
this vision, which the present time will not permit us 
to consider ; but in view of what has been said, it will 
readily be admitted that St. John foresees the rise and 



THE SARACEN POWER. 19 

mission of some great invading and conquering host, 
animated b}^ a false religion. He points out the country 
from which it comes ; he describes its movements, the 
personal appearance of the warriors, their dress, their 
manner of action, their mission, their rule, and the 
duration of their conquering career. 

With this description in our hands, we ought surely 
to be able to identify the reality, if it has already ap- 
pear-ed in human affairs. Let us then turn to the pages 
of history to see if we can find there, any power which 
can be fairly indentified as the army of ''the locusts," 
predicted by St. John. Fortunately there is at hand, 
accessible to all, a history whose authority as a standard 
all admit, and to whose testimony in this case not even 
the most sceptical can object. It is a monument of 
learning and careful research, and in its fascinating 
pages will be found the most striking commentary on 
parts of the Revelation ever written. Certainly no one 
will accuse it of partiality to Christianity, or say that 
it was written designedly in the interests of New Tes- 
tament prophecy. It is Gibbon's history of the Decline 
and Fall of the Roman Empire. Its learned author 
delights in sneering at the christian faith, and even 
when he records with unquestionable truthfulness the 
vices and superstitions that corrupted the Church, 
he does it with an ill- concealed gratification. But after 
all, it seems as if this sneering infidel was raised up to 
be an unconscious witness to the truth of God's Word ; 
and that like Balaam of old, though he meant to curse, 
he has ended in confirming the testimony of the 
God of Israel. From the brilliant pages of his his- 
tory, I take the facts which I desire to place along side 



20 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

this prophecy, for the purpose of identification. 

In the history of the first six centuries of the Christ- 
ian era, nothing can be found that adequately fulfills 
the prophec}^ which we have been considering. But 
in the opening of the seventh century, a great move- 
ment begins in Arabia, so extraordinary in its charac- 
ter, methods and results, as to recall to the thoughtful 
reader of the Bible. St. John's vision of the army of 
the locusts. It w^as in the year A. D. 571, that Ma- 
homet was born. To this marvelous man was given 
the power to establish a new religion, which speedily 
overturned the altars of Christianit}^ in Asia and Africa. 
No better emblem of his career can be found, than 
that of a meteor suddenly appearing in the heavens, 
exciting wonder and awe by its brilliant course, and 
then disappearing in the earth. He came, claiming to 
be the prophet of God — a divine leader and teacher 
of men. Gibbon writes: ''In the cave of Hera, three 
miles from Mecca, he consulted the spirit of fraud and 
enthusiasm whose abode is not in the heavens, but in 
the mind of the prophet. The faith w^hich under the 
name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation, 
is compounded of an eternal truth and a necessary 
fiction, — that there is only one God, and that Mahomet 
is the apostle of God." 

He stands forth pre-eminently as the false proph- 
et of the Christian centuries ; and still, after the 
lapse of twelve hundred 3^ears, he is revered by millions 
as the apostle of God. The Koran, a strange mixture 
of imposture and fanaticism, of Arabian and Jewish 
traditions, of speculations, and truths taken from the 
Scriptures, in a comparatively brief space of time be- 



THE SARACEN POWER. 21 

came the accepted revelation of God, to at least the 
third part of the then known world. Like "smoke" 
filling the air, it darkened the minds of men and shut* out 
the true hght of the Divine Word. It was indeed a 
revelation from the pit of darkness, a representation of 
the living God, and of the truth necessary for salvation 
that well might have been conceived in hell, in order 
to destroj^ the souls of men. If the historian of the 
present, were to search for an emblem to describe the 
mental and spiritual condition of those who accept the 
Koran, he could find nothing more appropriate than to 
say "that the}^ are covered with a cloud of smoke that 
shuts out all true light. ' ' 

Under the teachings and inspiration of this new faith, 
grew up those formidable bands of armed fanatics, 
who came from Ai*abia to spread themselves like swarms 
of locusts over the Eastern World. Gibbon describes 
those who flocked to the banner of the false prophet, 
allured by the prospect of conquest and plunder, or 
compelled by the sword, as "myriads." These hosts 
of bearded and turbaned horsemen, known as the 
Saracens, passing rapidly to and fro, as though carried 
on wings, were irresistible in their power. "In ten 
years of the administration of Omar, they reduced to 
his obedience 3600 cities and castles, destro3"ed 4000 
churches, and built 4000 mosques. One hundred years 
after the flight of Mahomet from Mecca, the reign of 
his successors extended from India to the Atlantic 
Ocean. Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa and Spain were 
subject to their authority." The historian has carefully 
recorded certain peculiarities about the movements of 
these armies of Islamism, which are most significant 



22 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

when placed along side the picture drawn by St. John. 
Unlike other conquerers of the Eastern World, where 
ever they went, they forced upon the people the deadly 
error of their new faith. The nation that fell under 
their power was as one stung with ''a scorpion;" the 
deadly poison of Mahometanism was infused into its 
veins. ''''Their torment luas as the torment of a scorpion 
ivhen he striketh a man,'' How aptly doestliis set forth 
the condition of the people who have been poisoned by 
the teachings of the Koran. 

Another feature in the conquests of the Saracens 
was §0 strange and unhke all the methods of all pre- 
\ious invasions, that the historian dwells upon it at 
length. One of the precepts of Mahomet forbade his 
followers from destroying any fruit trees or gardens or 
\dneyards, in the region which they attempted to con- 
quer. When Abubeker led forth the army destined for 
the conquest of Syria, he gave these orders : ' 'Eemem- 
ber that you are always in the presence of God, on the 
verge of death, in the assurance of judgment, and the 
hope of paradise. When you fight the battles of the 
Lord, acquit yourselves like men, without turning your 
backs, destroy no palm trees, nor any fields of corn, 
cut down no fruit trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, 
only such as you kill to eat." — (Gibbon.) Such were 
the marching orders of the Saracens, and they were 
strictly and religiously observed in all their invasions. 
This refraining from destropng orchards and vineyards, 
and fields of corn, was as strange a feature in war, as 
then conducted, as though vast swarms of locusts 
should light upon the earth, and pass over it and yet 
not hurt or devour any green thing. But if we turn 



THE SARACEN POWEK. 23 

to the prophecy, we will find that this singular charac- 
teristic is not overlooked — "AjicI it was commanded 
them that they should not hurt the grass of the earthy 
neither any green thing ^ neither any tree." 

The religious zeal of the Saracens was directed es- 
pecially against those whom they esteemed idolaters. 
In this class they reckoned those professed chiistians who 
worshipped images and relics, and paid divine honors 
to saints and angels. But history records the fact that 
those parts of the christian church, which in the midst 
of abounding corruption adhered to the ancient script- 
ural faith, were most singularly preserved from Mahom- 
etan violence. This was the case with the Nestorians 
in the East ; although dwelling in countries under the 
rule of the Saracens, they were comparatively unmolest- 
ed in their worship. Abubeker's orders to his armies 
were ; "As you go on you will find some religious peo- 
ple who live retired in monasteries and propose to 
themselves to serve God in that way : let them alone, 
and neither kill them, nor destroy their monasteries : 
and you will find another sort of people, that belong 
to the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crowns : 
be sure you cleave their skulls, and give them no quar- 
ter until they either turn Mahometans or pay tribute." 
Equally remarkable was the preservation of true Christ- 
ianity in the heart of Europe. After the Saracens had 
completed the conquest of Spain and Portugal, they in- 
tended to make a descent on Italy, and thus complete 
the conquest of Europe. But fortunately for the cause 
of humanity and Christian civilization, this purpose was 
frustrated b^^ the valor of Charles Martel. A success- 
ful battle arrested the tide of invasion, which, had it 



24 THE EASTEKN QUESTION. 

swept over the Alps, would have changed the destiines 
of the world. It has often been remarked, that the 
arrest of the Saracen hosts beforeEurope was su])dued, 
was what there was no reason to anticipate, and it even 
3'et perplexes historians to account for it. Hallam in 
his History of the Middle Ages, sa^^s ; "these conquests 
which astonish the careless and superficial, are less 
perplexing to a calm inquirer, than their cessation— the 
loss of half the Roman Empire, than the preservation 
of the rest." But is there not in all. this, the verifica- 
tion of this declaration' ' ? It was commanded them that 
they should not hurt the grass of the earthy but only those 
men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads,'" 
They were raised up as a plague upon apostate Christ- 
endom, but not to destroy the true church of Christ. 

Another striking characteristic of the Saracen soldiers, 
was their desire for death. So filled were they 
T\dth the fanatical doctrines of the Koran, that they 
actually sought death on the field of battle, in order 
to be translated speedily to Paradise. ''The sword," 
said Mahomet, ' 'is the key of heaven and of hell ; a 
drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent 
in arms, are of more avail than two months of fasting 
and prayer ; whosoever falls in battle, his sins are for- 
given ; at the day of judgment his wounds shall be 
resplendent as vermillion, and as odoriferous as musk ; 
the loss of his limbs shall be supplied b}^ the wings of 
angels and cherubims. ' ' ' 'By such revelations, ' ' Gibbon 
remarks, "the souls of the Arabs were filled with en- 
thusiasm ; the picture of the invisible w^orld was strong- 
ly painted on their imaginations, and death, which the}^ 
had always despised, became an object of hope and 



THE SARACEN POWER. 25 

desire.'' They rushed to battle as to a feast, crying, 
''Fight, fight! Paradise, paradise!" Turn from these 
words of the historian to those of the revelator : ' ''And 
in these days shall men seek death^ and shall not find it: 
and shall desire to die^ and death shall flee from them.'' 

This same historian informs us concerning the dur- 
ation of the Saracen conquests. From the time Ma- 
homet preached his first crusade in Mecca, A. D. 
612, until A. D. 762, when Caliph Almansor built 
Bagdad and called it ''the city of peace," is a period 
of 150 years. After this time they made no further 
encroachments upon Christendom. "War" says Gib- 
bon, "was now no longer the passion of the Saracens: 
there, the luxury of the Caliphs relaxed the nerves, 
and terminated the progress of the Arabian empire." 
This corresponds precisely with the prophetic period of 
five months^ or 150 years, during which they were to 
be a torment to Christendom. '- ^ And their poiver loas to 
hurt men five months,'' 

Still another peculiarity of the Saracen rule is, that 
during all its existence it was as though one man 
reigned, Mahomet lived and ruled in his successors. 
The Caliphs professed to derive their authority from 
him, and to govern according to his laws. Gibbon 
writes ; ' 'the regal and sacerdotal characters were unit- 
ed in the successors of Mahomet: and if the Koran 
was the rule of their actions, they were the supreme 
judges and interpreters of that divine book. ' ' Here also, 
the correspondence with the language of St. John is 
perfect. '-''And they had a king over them which is the 
angel of the bottomless pit,, (that is the one mentioned 
in the first verse, as having the key of the pit,) ivhose 



26 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

name in the Hebreiv tongue is Abaddon^ hut in the Greek 
tongue hath his name Apollyon^' ' that is "destroyer. ' ' And 
how fitting the title for him, whose mission it was to set 
up and leave behind him a religion that has cursed the 
bodies and souls of millions, for ages ! 

Other points might readily be noticed in the history, 
which would explain and confirm the description 
given in the prophecy ; but without dwelling upon these, 
let us notice in conclusion, the efi'ects of the conquests 
of the Saracens as presented in historj^ and prophecy. 

The Saracen invasions swept over those parts of 
the world in which Christianity had first been planted, 
and where it had been in the course of time, most deep- 
ly corrupted by superstition and philosophy. . Indeed, 
the whole force and aim of this new power of Islamism 
were so manifestl}^ directed against the church as then 
existing, that it was regarded as the plague and woe of 
Christendom. The Christian empire trembled before 
it, and at times it seemed to human view, as if the cres- 
cent was destined to supplant the cross, and the Koran, 
instead of the Scriptures, shape the thought and religion 
of Europe. And certainly the condition of the church 
then, was such as to invite and justify this judgment. 
Gibbon writes, ''the Christians of the seventh centurj^ 
insensibly relapsed into a semblance of paganism: 
their public and private vows were addressed to the 
relics and images that disgraced the temples of the 
East. The throne of the Almighty. was darkened by a 
crowd ofmartyrs, and saints and angels, the objects of 
popular veneration." And again he writes: ''The use, 
and even the worship of images, was firml}^ established 
before the end of the sixth century. ' ' But instead of 



THE SAKACEN POWER. 27 

repenting in view of the judgments which had over- 
whelmed the Eastern churches, the remainder held fast 
to their superstitious and idolatrous rites, and the 
number of saints to whom adoration was paid, increased 
instead of diminished. 

All this corresponds precisely with the language of 
St. John, both as to the cause of this "woe" and its 
effects upon a degenerate church — '^And the rest of the 
men which ivere not killed hy these plagues^ yet repented 
not of the luorks of their hands ^ that they should not wor- 
ship devils (i. e. demons, or the disembodied souls of 
men) and idols of gold ^ and silver^ and brass ^ and stone ^ 
and of wood.'' 

So far then, the identification is complete. The 
Word of God has pointed out to us the rise and first 
stages of that power, which still lives to vex and 
trouble the nations ; and upon whose utter overthrow 
so much that is glorious in the future, depends. 
And surely, if the minute description of its rise and 
first mission, made five hundred years before it came 
into existence, has been literally fulfilled, we may 
rightly expect the remaining part of the prediction to 
come to pass according to the Word of the Lord. 

But while we reflect upon this omniscience of God 
as revealed in prophecy, and upon his faithfulness to 
his word as revealed in history, let us not forget what 
He has declared concerning our own personal future. 
We may read our destiny in the light of His promises. 
He who fulfills His word among the nations, also keeps 
covenant with them that trust in Him. ' 'He that believ- 
eth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that 
l3elieveth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of 



28 THE EASTEKN QLESTION. 

God abideth on him." Do not expect that the future 
will in any wa}^ falsify this declaration. Shall God 
keep His word to the nations and yet break it to indi- 
viduals ? Take heed then I beseech you, to the word 
which He has spoken to you, my hearer. The ''ques- 
tion" which most of all should concern you, is not one 
to be solved in the distant ''East;" but it is one 
close at hand, and to be determined in your own 
heart: — Have you believed on the Lord Jesus 
Christ ? 

"That Holy One, 
Who came to earth for Thee, — 
Oh, strangest thing beneath the Sun, 
That He, by any mortal one. 

Forgotten e'er should be! 

The Son of God, 
Who pity had on Thee ; 
Who turned aside the smiting rod, 
And all alone the Garden trod, — 

Forgotten shall He be?" 



Lecture II. 




[Rev. 9: 12-21.] 

ONE woe is past: and behold, there come two woes more hereafter . 
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four 
horns of the golden altar which is before God, 

14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four 
angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. 

15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, 
and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part ot men. 

16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred 
thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. 

17 And thus I saw horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, 
having breast plates of lire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the 
heads of the horses were as the heads of lions ; and out of their mouths 
issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone. 

18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and 
by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. 

19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails : for their tails 
were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them do they hurt. 

20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet 
repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship 
devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of 
wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk; 

21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries,, nor 
of their fornication, nor of their thefts. 

ON last Sabbath evening, your attention was called to 
the prophetic events f ollomng the sounding of the 
fifth trumpet. These, as was shown to you, found 
their fulfillment in the rise of Mahometanism, and in the 
empire of the Saracens. Immediately following this 
in the prophetic series, is the announcement of another 
''woe" heralded by the sounding of the sixth trumpet. 
'''And the sixth angel sounded^ and I heard a voice from 
the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. ' ' 

(29) 



30 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

Here we have described the divine source of tin's 
coming judgment. As tlie symbols by which the rev- 
elator describes heavenly things are taken from the 
Old Testament, we can readily understand what is 
symbolized by ''the golden altar." It was the altar 
of incense standing before the Most Holy Place, in the 
temple : on it was burnt the sweet spices wdiose ascend- 
ing fragrance represented the prayers of God's people, 
always acceptable in his sight when offered through 
the mediation of Jesus Christ, It is from the "golden 
altar," that is in answer to the cries of His praying 
people, that the Voice comes which commands pre- 
paration for further judgments upon the earth. Jesus 
Christ in encouraging men to pra}^, says, — ''and shall 
not God ^venge his own elect, which cry day and 
night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I 
tell you that He will avenge them speedily." Here, 
as a confirmation to His own words. He draws aside 
the vail, and shows us how the stupendous events of 
history work in the interests of those, who by faith lay 
hojd of the horns of the golden altar that is before 
God. Yes, prayer is a power in the world. Kings and 
statesmen may take counsel together, and marshal the 
forces of empires, but over all is One who listens at the 
"golden altar" for the cries of His people, and in due 
time. His voice will be heard espousing their cause, 
and calhng for judgment upon their enemies. 

The Divine Voice commands a messenger "To loose 
the four angels which are hound in the great river 
Euphrates,'' This points us to the earthly origin of 
the coming "woe." It takes its rise in the general 
region of which the Euphrates is the chief river. It 



THE TURKISH POAYER. 31 

is customaiy, not only with the prophetical writers, 
but also in modern language, to designate certain re- 
gions by one or more of their characteristic natural 
features. As for example, we speak of the valley of 
the Mississippi, or the land of the Nile ; each of these 
great rivers being the most prominent natural feature 
in its respective region. We can readily gather 
from the prophecy that the power which is to come forth 
from the old Babylonian empire, is to be a military 
host of vast numbers. ' ' The number of the army of the 
horsemen ivas two hundred thousand thousand. ' ' Here we 
have a definite number put to represent the indefinite 
number of a great host. The revelator s^js he ' ^heard 
the number of them.'' He did not see all of them, thus 
indicating that they do not all appear at once, in one 
arm}^, bat through a succession of 3^ears. The time 
of their mission of destruction is given. ' ' They were 
made ready for an hour^ and a day^ and a months and, 
a year.'' Reckoning each "day" to stand foi' a year of 
860 days, this would represent a period of 391 years, 
and the part of a j-^ear indicated b}^ "an hour," — that 
is the tw^elfth, or twenty- fourth part of 360 days. This 
method of dividing the year into tw^elve equal parts of 
thirty daj^s each, is as old as the time of Noah, and 
possibly w^as the primitive j^ear ; but when intercalation 
w^as necessar}^ an additional month was added. So 
we may regard these prophetic years as equivalent to 
the same number of ordinar}^ years. In this period, 
the "four angels" of the Euphrates, '^luere to slay 
the third part of men" Under the fifth trumpet, the 
hosts represented .by the locusts were not to kill men, 
but to torment them. Accordingly w^e found that the 



32 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

Saracens, while overrunniug and subduing the Christ- 
ian Empire in Spain, Africa, Egypt, and all Asia, with 
the exception of a small portion of territory betw^een 
the Mediterranean and Black Sea, still spared the larg- 
er portion of nominal Christians, thongh their lot was 
one of terrible oppression and distress. But this new- 
hostile pow^er is to stand in a different relation to Christ- 
endom. It is to be a ^'slayer," rather than a tormentor. 
It is further described, as ^'the four angels which 
are bound." All forces or agencies may be used as God's 
''angels" or ''messengers," for so the word means. 
Fire and hail, snow and vapor, and stormy winds 
fulfill His Word. He ma}^ send the hornets, as in 
Canaan, or command the destructive elements of flood 
and Are, or marshal invading armies to execute His 
righteous judgments. The number "four" is the num- 
ber of totality or completeness. Thus "the four cor- 
ners of the earth' ^ represent the whole earth. Is. 11 : 
12 ; The "four winds," all the winds from every side. 
Math. 25: 31. So also the completeness of heaven is 
represented by describing it as "four square" Eev. 21 : 
16. By the "four angels," then, we are to understand 
all the power to the full extent, which for a time had 
been bound in the region represented by the Euphrates. 
We know from what follows, that it is a military pow- 
er, especially of horsemen or cavalry. In the 17th 
and 19th verses we have a description of their appear- 
ance, and manner of warfare. Bright colors of red 
and blue and yellow, characterize their dress. The 
method of their warfare is also strikingly different from 
that of the hosts under the fifth trumpet, though they 
also were horsemen. "Ou^ of their mouths issued fire^ 



THE TURKISH POWER. 33 

and smoke^ and brimstone,'' Some new, wonderful and 
exceedingly destructive agency, is used by them in 
their conquests. 

Let us now lay the prophetical picture along side of 
written history, and see if we can discover its counter- 
part. We found in the former lecture, that the events 
described under the fifth trumpet, were not all realized 
in history until the eighth century ; so we need not 
look earlier than that period for the fulfillment of what 
is here described. It is declared, "one woe is past; 
behold there come two woes more hereafter." 

The vision itself, points us to the Euphrates, so that 
we are at no loss as to what portion of history we must 
search to find its fulfillment, if it has been realized. 
Again we turn to Gibbon, whose fascinating pages pic- 
ture so graphically the rise and fall of empires in the 
East. The Saracens after their rapid and wonderful 
career of conquest, built their capital, the city of Bag- 
dad, in the region of the Euphrates. There the Cahphs, 
the proud successors of Mahomet, liyed in luxury, and 
cultivated peace. The throne of Mahometanism was 
transported from the deserts of Arabia to the fertile 
plains of Mesopotamia. But soon this mighty Empire 
felt the power of that law of decay, from which no na- 
tion has ever been able to escape. In the tenth centu- 
ry, its glory was gone. Peace had brought luxury ; 
and luxury, licentiousness and decay. From A. D. 
770 to A. D. 1040, this mighty power of Islamism, 
which once threatened the destruction of Christendom, 
made no conquests. It was "bound" in the region of 
the Euphrates. Faction rose against faction; wars 
and tumults, and assassinations followed each other in 



34 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

rapid succession. The old Empire was in ruins and a 
new builder was needed. In due time, the next actoi' 
in this strange scene of strife and judgment appears. 
East of the Caspian Sea, and north of the ancient 
empire of Persia, is a region of country called on our 
maps, Turkestan. This was the original seat of the 
Turks or Turkmans. They w^ere the ancient Scythians 
of the sixth century, and their name w^as still famous 
among the Greeks and Orientals for their fierceness, 
courage, and cruelty in war. While the Empire of the 
Caliphs was falling to pieces, these wild shepherds and 
horsemen of the North descended in vast hordes upon 
the kingdom of Persia, and in course of a comparatively 
short period, erected a splendid and solid empire, ex- 
tending from the river Indus, to the confines of Greece 
and ^gypt: nor did they cease in their victorious 
career, until the crescent had displaced the cross on 
the dome of St. Sophia, and the capital of the old Roman 
World became their seat of empire. One of the great- 
est of the Turkish princes w^as Mahmud, who reigned 
in Persia 1000 years after the birth of Christ. For 
him the title of Sultan, meaning '4ord" or "master," 
was first invented. As to the number of these armed 
bands that swept dow^n year after 3^ear to spread them- 
selves over the plains of Persia, Gibbon makes this 
statement — ''The Sultan had inquired of one of the 
chiefs, what supply of men he could furnish for mili- 
tary service. 'If you send,' replied Ismael, 'one of 
these arrows into our camp, 50,000 of your servants 
will mount on horseback. ' — .'And if that number should 
not be sufficient?' — 'Send this second arrow to the 
horde of Balik, and you will find 50,000 more.' ^But' 



THE TURKISH POWER. 35 

said the Sultan, 'if I shoalcl stand in need of the 
whole force of j^our kindred tribes?' — -'Dispatch my 
bow,' was the last reply of Ismael, 'and the sum- 
mons will be obeyed by 200,000 horse.' " 

The whole body of the Turkish nation embraced 
the religion of Mahomet with fervor and sincerity, 
and with their relentless cimeters, they became the 
most zealous and successful of missionaries. In 
their career of conquest, they enthroned them- 
selves in Bagdad, the capital of Mahometanism and 
the seat of the Caliphs, and at that place, their great lead- 
er, Togrul, was solemnly proclaimed to be lieutenant 
of the YicsiY of Mahomet, and the Commander of the 
armies of the Faithful. This significant event occur- 
red A. D. 1058. The "preparation" in the divine 
purpose was now complete ; the thunderbolt was forged 
which was to fall in judgment upon apostate Christen- 
dom. The time for "loosing" the powers of the Euphra- 
tes had come. About four years after his solemn en- 
thronement at Bagdad, Togrul led his armies against 
the Grecian or Roman Empire, and began that long 
and bloody contest which for nearly four centuries kept 
Europe in excitement, anxiety and terror, and cost the 
lives of millions of her people. At the head of his 
horsemen, Togrul crossed the Euphrates, and the 
first campaign of this new invasion is thus described 
by the historian: "the myriads of Turkish horsemen 
overspread a frontier of six hundred miles, and the 
blood of 130,000 Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the 
Arabian Prophet." After this, for a time it seemed as 
if this tide of destruction had receded, to rise no more ; 
but it came again with its destroying floods. 



36 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

At the death of Malek Shah, one of the successors 
of Togrul, the Turkish Empire was broken into four 
parts. Tiiis separation was lasting. At first, following 
the usual course of factions, their arms were turned 
against each other. But once when their armies were in 
battle array expecting the signal, the Caliph, the succes- 
sor of Mahomet, forgetful of the majesty which secluded 
him from vulgar eyes, interposed his mediation. "In- 
stead of shedding the blood of your brethren, brethren 
both in descent and in faith, unite your forces in a holy 
war against the Greeks, the enemies of God and His 
Apostle. ' ' They listened to his voice ; and the eldest of 
the rival leaders, the valiant Soliman, accepted the royal 
standard which gave him the free conquest and her- 
editary command of the provinces of the Roman Empire, 
from Ai^zeroum to Constantinople and the unknown re- 
gions of the West. Accompanied by his four brothers he 
passed the Euphrates, and the Turkish camp was soon 
seated in the neighborhood of Kutaieh in Phrygia." 
Now began a series of lasting conquests over the 
Christian empire, which did not cease until after the 
taking of Constantinople, in A. D. 1453. With the 
fall of the Imperial city, the supremacy of the Turks 
was fully established in the East ; and Christianity was 
almost exterminated in the countries of its birth-place 
and early triumphs. Erom the time that Togrul start- 
ed from Bagdad about A. D. 1060, to A. D. 1453, is 
a period of 391 years, the time specified for this 
"woe" by the prophet. Here, were the dates in 
history sufficiently accurate, we might be able to verif}' 
the prophecy to the fraction of the year. 

Thus the time of the rise of the Turkish power corre- 



THE TURKISH POWER. 37 

sponds with the predictions of St. John. But can we 
find in history, the fulfillment of their prophetic mis- 
sion during this period, — ''to slay the third part of 
men?" The history of Turkish conquests is indeed 
a blood}^ one. For three hundred and fift}' years, their 
record is little else than that of an invading army and 
a hostile camp among the nations. The names of 
Saladin, Soliman, Zengis-Khan, Othman, Bajazet, 
Tamerlane, Mahomet II, and a host of others, at once 
suggest scenes of rapine and slaughter, and remind us 
of careers marked with the bleaching bones of countless 
victims. The remains ()f the Christian empire in Asia 
were soon trodden to the dust under the hoofs of their 
horsemen. The churches which had been spared un- 
der the oppressive toleration of the Saracens, were lit- 
erally exterminated by the Turks. In the first assault 
against the Christian provinces in Asia Minor, 130,000 
victims fell under their cimeters : at Antioch, where 
the disciples were first called Christians, the church 
that Paul had indoctrinated was entirely destroyed. 

At NicCf where the famous council of the Catholic 
church had proclaimed in unmistakable language the 
doctrine of the divinity of Jesus Christ, these followers 
of the false prophet established for a time their capital, 
and derided the name of Jesus in the churches that 
once echoed with hj^mns to his praise. Under them 
the capti\4ty and ruin of the seven churches of Asia, 
to which St. John addresses the solemn admonitions in 
the opening of his prophecies, were consummated. In 
the second and third chapters of the Eevelation, we 
find that all these churches, with the single exception 
of the one in Philadelphia, were threatened with 



o8 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

destruction. Concerning the latter, the following pre- 
diction was made :—' 'Behold, I will make them of the 
synagogue of Satan, w^hich say thej^ are Jews and are 
not, but do lie ; behold, I will make them to come and 
worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved 
thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my pa- 
tience, I also will keep thee from the hour oi 
temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try 
them that dwell upon the earth." Rev. 3: 9 — 10. 
Now turn to the pages of Gibbon and see the record 
of history. 

' 'The ruin of the seven churches of Asia was con- 
summated: and the barbarous lords of Ionia and 
Lydia still trample on the monuments of classic and 
Christian antiquit}^ In the loss of Ephesus, the 
Christians deplored the fall of the first 'angel,' the 
extinction of the 'first candlestick' of the Revelation. 
The desolation is complete. The circus and three 
stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with 
wolves and foxes: Sardis is reduced to a miserable 
village ; the God of Mahomet without a rival or a son, 
is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamos. 
Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy or 
courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the 
emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her 
valiant citizens defended their religion above four-score 
years. Among the Greek colonies and churches of 
Asia, Philadelphia is still erect, a column in a scene of 
ruins, a pleasing example that the paths of honor and 
safety may sometimes be the same." How strikingly do 
the words of the sceptical historian echo the language 
of the Spirit: "Because thou hast kept the word of mj^ 



THE TURKISH POWER. 39 

patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temp- 
tation." 

Crossing into Europe, the victorious Turks speed- 
ih?^ overran all that remained of the Greek empire. 
On the plains of Ser\da, where this old contest 
threatens to break out anew^, they defeated the 
great armies that Europe marshalled against them, 
with tremendous slanghter, and extended their con- 
quests to the gates of Vienna. One of their Sultans, 
from a victorious battle field, threatened to feed his 
horse from the altar of St. Peter at Rome ; and such 
was the terror of Europe before his arms, that only a 
fit of gout prevented the accomplishment of his threat. 

Constantinople, for ages the seat of the Christian 
emperors, at last fell into their power, and the crescent 
was victorious over the cross throughout the Eastern 
World. But this long history of bloody and relentless 
war against the Christians does not measure the extent 
of Turkish slaughters. About the same time that 
these powers from the Euphrates were "loosed to sla^^ 
the third part of men," there began in Europe that 
wonderful movement, known in historj^as the crusades. 
Under the reign of the Saracens, the spirit of tolera- 
tion permitted the Christians of Europe to \dsit the city 
made sacred by the death and resurrection of the 
Redeemer of men. But when the Turks occupied 
Jerusalem, "a spirit of native barbarism, or recent 
zeal, prompted them to insult the clergy of every sect ; 
the patriarch was dragged b}^ the hair along the pave- 
ment and cast into a dungeon ; divine worship in the 
church of the Resurrection was often disturbed by the 
savage rudenness of its masters." The pathetic tale 



40 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

of the indignities which the Christian pilgrims suffered, 
excited the millions of the West to march under the 
standard of the cross to the relief of the Hoty Land. 
The historian significantly writes: — ''a nerve was 
touched of exquisite feeling, and the sensation vibrated 
to the heart of Europe." In A. D. 1095, Pope Urban 
proclaimed the first crusade. Thus began the great 
religious war, which according to the testimony of his- 
tory — ''almost depopulated Europe." It Avas carried 
on during a period of two hundred years, and more 
than two millions of Christians were sacrificed in the 
seven crusades. So great was the enthusiasm in this 
movement, that the East was threatened with a wholesale 
migration from the West. Emperors, kings, bishops, 
priests, monks, nuns, and even multitudes of women 
and children joined the hosts of the crusaders, and were 
carried to the land of the Turks, as by a great tide, 
only to be slaughtered. It seemed as if in their own 
land the Turks stood as executioners, the divinely 
appointed slaj^ers of men, and the people of Europe 
pressed on in a ceaseless stream to their execution. ' 'Six 
succeeding generations" says the historian, "rushed 
headlong down the precipice that was open before 
them. In a period of two centuries after the council 
of Clermont, each spring and summer produced a new 
emigration of pilgrim warriors for the Holy Land.' ' 
Bernard, one of the apostles of the crusades, applauds 
his own success in the depopulation of Europe. He 
aflfirms that cities and castles were emptied of their in- 
habitants, and computes that only one man w^as left 
behind for the consolation of seven widows. In view 
of all these historic statements, can w^e find no fulfill- 



THE TURKISH POWER. 41 

ment of the prediction tliat they "ivei^e to slay the 
third part of menV^ 

Another striking feature characterizing the Turkish 
armies, was the multitude of their horsemen. In no 
other period of the world's history were such vast num- 
bers of cavalry employed in war. It was not unusual for 
a Turkish leader to set forth on his campaigns, followed 
by two hundred thousand horsemen. The favorite ex- 
pression of Gibbon in describing their armies is, ''the 
myriads of Turkish horsemen." In the armies of the 
Greeks, the Romans, and the Goths, the infantry was 
always largely in excess of the cavalry ; but with the 
Turks the very reverse was the case. The introduction 
of gunpowder in the fifteenth century, changed the meth- 
od of warfare ; so that since the taking of Constantinople, 
no great military po\v^ers have been like the ancient Turks 
in the multitude of their horsemen. Remembering that 
they kept up these immense bodies of cavalry through a 
period of three centuries, is there no significance in the 
language of the revelator when he writes, ''''The num- 
ber of the army of the horsemen was two hundred thousand 
thousand," or as we would say, "myriads?" It is to 
be noted also, that this is the last time that such multi- 
tudes of earthly horsemen appear in the apocalyptic 
visions. This also corresponds, as I have just shown, 
with the facts of history. If a student of history was 
appointed to find out during what period cavalry was 
most exclusively used in warfare, and by what people, 
he would be comx)elled to say, "by the Turks, from 
A. D. 1050, to the fall of Constantinople, when gun- 
powder altered the mode of warfare." 

A third characteristic of the Turkish horsemen, was 



42 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

their apparel. The crusading knights and the'soldiers 
of Europe wore armor ; but these wild, fierce horsemen 
of the East disdained it, save at times a breastplate, 
and clad in bright garments of red and blue and yel- 
low, they rushed to battle as to a feast. They are 
described by the historian as being "fierce as lions." 
Turkish valor and brutality became a proverb in the East 
and throughout Europe. Fire, pillage and extermina- 
tion, or instant submission, were the only alternatives 
they offered. 

The latter part of this period of warfare was marked 
by an invention, or discovery which has played a most 
important part ever since, in the world's history. It 
was the application of gunpowder to the deadly arts of 
war. "This mischievious discovery," says Gibbon, 
"over whose rapid progress, as compared with the la- 
borious and slow advances of reason, science, and the 
arts of peace, a philosopher according to his temper, 
will laugh or weep," was soon communicated to the 
Turks, and by them used with deadly effect. They 
employed cannon at the siege of Constantinople ; and 
it was amid the thunders of artillery, whose immense 
size still excites wonder and doubt, that the massive 
walls of the Imperial city fell ; and the Turks rushed 
into the palaces of the Emperors, and transformed them 
into the courts and seraglios of their Sultans. 

And now suppose that this historical period of 391 
years, from the going forth of the Turkish power from 
Bagdad, to the taking of Constantinople, was spread 
out before us in one vast panorama ; we saw the multi- 
tudes of horsemen in their gay apparel, starting on their 
errand of conquest ; we marked their fierceness and 



THE TURKISH POWER. 43 

valor; we saw the vast arm}^ of their victims from 
Europe ; we beheld their mighty artillery, and witnessed 
for the first time the flames of fire and smoke belching 
forth from the mouths of their cannon ; — suppose that 
we were required to describe all this in a few compre- 
hensive, yet exact words, so that it might accurately 
be distinguished from all other movements in histor^^^, 
what better words could we select than those of St. 
John : ' 'I saw a great host moving from the region of 
the Euphrates, destined to slay the third part of men. 
The number of the army was myriads, so great that I 
could not count them. I heard the number. I saw 
the horses and them that sat on them, having breast- 
plates of fire, and of jacinth and brimstone ; and the 
heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, and out 
of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone." 

I could, did our time permit, point out other points 
of correspondence, between the remaining part of the 
prophecy, and the history of the Turks. But sm-ely 
there has been enough to establish the identification. 

In conclusion, observe this: history tells us what 
a terror, plague, and judgment, the Turkish power 
has been to Christendom. But the Di^dne Word ex- 
plains to us the design of this woe. It was God's 
judgment against idolatrous and superstitious Christ- 
ianity. We read in verses twenty and twenty- one : 
''And the rest of the men which were not killed by these 
plagues^ yet repented not of the works of their hands^ 
that they should not worship devils^ (i. e. demons or 
disembodied spirits,) and idols of gold^ and silver^ and 
brass ^ and stone and of wood,, which neither can see, 
nor hear, nor walk. Neither repented they of their 



44 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

murders^ nor of their sorceries^ nor of their fornications^ 
nor of their thefts,'' In the former lecture, I quoted 
passages from histor}^ showing the lamentable con- 
dition of the Eastern Church during the time of the 
Saracen conquests. But instead of being restrained 
by judgments, the tide of idolatrous superstition in- 
creased. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were 
the dark ages of the Christian Church. The worship 
of saints, and relics, and images, became universal. 
As an illustration of the impious worship of the times, 
take the Psalter of St. Bonaventura, a cardinal, who 
took the Psalms of David, and w^ierever the word 
''Lord" or ''God" occurred, substituted for it the 
name of the Virgin Marj^ Lying miracles and pious 
frauds and relics abounded. A manual was issued 
under the pontificate of John XXII, in which every 
crime had its absolution, and every sin its forgiveness, 
for a fixed sum of money. Indulgences were sold pub- 
licly. Masses for the dead, the sale of ecclesiastical 
offices, and fees for licences to live in sin, brought in 
so great a revenue, that Pope LeoX. exclaimed, "how 
profitable this fable of Jesus Christ has been to us." 

It w^as also the time of "murders," for sword and fire 
were freely used for the extinction of heresy. John Huss 
and his followers, the Waldenses, and the Albigenses 
were cruelly slaughtered in the name of Christianity. 
It is a sad and humiliating picture, which all historians 
present of Christendom in the middle ages ; yet the 
opening of the sixteenth century found it under a 
cloud of accumulating and unrepented superstition. 
The facts of history confirm the statement of prophe- 
cy: '^neither repented they of their murders^ nor of 



THE TURKISH POWER. 45 

their sorceries^ nor of their fornications^ nor of their 
thefts/' 

How impressive is the lesson to be learned from 
these pages of history ! God will establish His word 
to his believing children ; and woe to those who, in the 
madness of their hearts, corrupt His truth, and resist 
His will. The perversion of Divine truth by an admix- 
tion of human conceits and superstitions, is the last 
artifice of Satan in his assaults upon the church ; it is 
one also, which he uses with deadly power. But the 
great Head of the church knew all of ''his devices" 
from the beginning, and forewarned His people ; and 
now that it has come to pass according to his w^ord, we 
have no reason to ''be offended" or cast down, as 
though Christianity itself were a failure. On the con- 
trary, the events of history call to mind Christ's own 
sure testimon}^, "these things have I told you, that when 
the time shall come, 3^e may remember that I told 3^ou 
of them. 

In this same revelation of "woes," we are told of 
those who were "sealed" or marked by God as his own. 
All through these judgments they were not forgotten. 
The hand that unloosed the powers of the Euphrates, 
and that dashed empires in pieces, "like a potter's ves- 
sel," was turned over these hidden ones to keep them 
in safety. Judgment brought them affliction, but 
caused them no harm or loss. By this "sealing," we 
are not to understand any outward mark upon the body, 
but that impress which regenerating grace makes on 
the inner man. The seal leaves an image of itself; so 
God in sealing His own, leaves His own image upon their 
souls. "The foundation of God standeth sure, having 



46 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

this seal ; the Lord knoweth them that are His : and let 
every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from 
iniquity." Are you my hearers, "sealed" with this 
mark? Have you renounced the idolatries and ungod- 
liness of a corrupt world, to serve the Lord in accordance 
with the testimony of His Word ? Until you are thus 
made secure in Christ, the contemplation of the work- 
ing of God's hand in history can fill you only with wonder 
and dread. How can you stand before Hini, who 
breaks the power of a godless world and overwhelms 
with His judgments, the nations that despise His truth? 
Woes and terrors must track the steps of the impenitent 
and unbelieving, and sooner or later overtake them. 
There is no escape for us, until we have accepted 
Christ as a refuge, and are found in Him sealed by the 
renewing and sanctifying Spirit. 



Lecture 111 

THE 




[Rev. 16 : 12.] 



AND the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphra- 
tes; and the water thereof was dried up, tliat the wa}' of the Kings 
of the East might be prepared. 

IN the previous lecture, we found the prophec}^ 
recorded in Rev. 9 : 13-19, fulfilled in the rise of 
the Turkish Empire, and in the woes which it inflicted 
upon Christendom. We identified the mighty army 
which came forth from "the great river Euphrates," 
with that military invasion, which swept like a desolat- 
ing flood over the eastern part of the old Roman 
empire, burying both throne and altar in common ruin. 
We saw from the pages of history, that from the time 
the Turkish power became supreme in Bagdad, some- 
where between A. D. 1056-62, until it enthroned itself 
in the palaces of the Christian emperors in Constanti- 
nople A. D. 1453, was a period of 391 years, and that 
this corresponds with the time assigned by prophecy, 
for its work of subversion. Then the work of over- 
turning the eastern part of the apostate Christian 
empire was wtually done. The terrible threatenings 

which the apostle had uttered against the churches in 

(47) 



48 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

case they did not repent, had come to pass. The 
''candlesticks" placed by apostolic hands, had been 
removed, and the land was left in terrible darkness. 
The "smoke" of Islamism which the revelator saw 
rising ''out of the bottomless pit," enveloped the 
earth as with thick darkness. 

Having thus seen the rise of this great military pow- 
er, as pictured in prophecy, and verified in history, we 
are prepared to consider what prophecy has to say 
about its future. Passing on in the prophetic series, 
we again come "to the great river Euphrates," pic- 
tured to us as a river, which having overflowed its 
banks, has covered and desolated the surrounding re- 
gion with its flood of waters. It is the very picture 
which Isaiah employed in his prophecy to represent the 
destructive conquests of the old Assyrian empire, 
spreading over the earth like a tide from the Euphra- 
tes. "Now therefore behold the Lord bringeth up 
upon them, the waters of the river, strong and many, 
even the king of Assyria and all his glory, And he 
shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his 
banks, and he shall pass through Judah, he shall over- 
flow and go over: he shall reach even to the neck." 
Is. 8: 6, 8. Thus we have scriptural authority for 
designating the people and empire of a region by its 
chief river. In the Turkish invasion, how truly had 
the water of the "great river" been "brought up" 
against Christendom ? It had overflowed, and gone over 
its banks, until its devastating torrents covered the land 
like a sea. In view of this, the voice of prophecy 
utters the history of the future in one brief yet most 
significant sentence — '-'-the great river Euphrates shall he 



THE DECLINE OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE. 49 

dried up.'' Looking carefully at the prophecy, every 
candid mind will admit that the following statements are 
contained in it. 1. It points us to a power that has 
come from, and goes back to the region of the Euphra- 
tes, just as swollen waters come forth from, and go 
back to their native channels. 2. This power is to 
decline gradually. The picture of its decline is that 
of a river swollen by floods, drying up, until at last 
its channel is empty. 3. This power, until dried up, 
stands in the way of another movement, that of ''Hlie 
Kings of the East. ' ' It lies across their way, like an 
unbridged and impassable stream ; but its evaporation, 
removes the hindrance, and opens ''the way." 4. 
This drying up is accomplished by divine judgrnents 
of various kinds, within the power itself. The vial 
which is poured out on the Euphrates, differs strikingly 
in its effects, from all the others. Its ingredients are 
just such as cause a wasting, or evaporation of all 
strength. It does not indicate that the power upon 
which it falls shall be cast down "with violence," like 
the mystic Babylon. 

As to the time and place of this event in the prophetic 
series, this much may be said. The events described 
in the last lecture, occurred under the sounding of the 
sixth trumpet. Following this, is the seventh and last 
prophetic epoch, heralded by the sounding of the seventh 
trumpet. You mil find upon examination, that this 
period corresponds with that predicted by the prophet 
Daniel, as the time when the Ancient of Days should 
come to judge the nations, and to give the kingdom to 
the Son of Man. It has been justly remarked, that "the 
sa:cred calendar, and great almanac of prophecy con- 



50 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

sists of the four kingdoms of Daniel, which are a 
prophetical chronology of times, measured by the suc- 
cession of four principal kingdoms, from the beginning 
of the capti^dty of Israel, until the mystery of God 
should be finished." When this period is finished, the 
gospel of Christ shall be triumphant. It must be remem- 
bered that in making interpretations as to prophetic 
and historic periods, we must see that they accord 
with both Daniel and John, for the Word of God must 
not contradict itself. Both Daniel and John testify 
that this period, which one represents by the "coming 
of the Ancient of Days," (Dan. 7: 9-14.) and the 
other by the "seventh trumpet," is the last one in the 
divine dealings with great anti- christian and world- 
powers, and that its issue shall be in this glorious con- 
summation: "all the kingdoms of this world are 
become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ. ' ' 
Both, also, agree in representing it as a long one, in 
which judgment and mercy are mingled. To this era 
belong the judgments described by the "seven \dals:" 
that is, the seven vials are poured forth while the sev- 
enth trumpet is sounding. But there is this peculiarit}^ 
to be observed about the judgments represented by 
the vials. They are synchronous ; that is, they are all 
poured forth at the same time, or at least nearly so. 

We are expressly told that the trumpets sounded in 
their order ; each one ceased, before the one to follow 
it began to sound. But the command to the seven 
angels to pour out their vials, is given to all at the same 
time. We are to understand by this that the judgment 
inflicted by one, was not necessarily exhausted, before 
another began. So that in searching history to find the 



THE DECLINE OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE. 51 

realizations of the judgments represented by the \4als, 
we must look especially to the localities on which they 
fell, rather than for the order of their coming. 

Let us now turn to the pages of history, and it must 
be also, to the history of a locality occupied by the 
power which overflowed like a flood, from the region 
of the Euphrates, for it is there that the prophecy 
points. We have already identified this power with 
the Turkish Empke. TVTien the sixth trumpet ceased 
its sounding, we found it enthroned in the ancient 
capital of the Eoman world, the terror and plague of 
Christendom. Since that time no other power has come 
forth from the Euphrates, and the Turkish empire still 
remains. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
640 years after Togrul had established his throne at 
Bagdad, the Turkish empire was still a formidable 
power in the world. Although shorn of nearly one 
half of its European possessions, it was abundantly able 
to defend itself. But before another century had gone 
by, the work of decay had begun. As though some 
invisible judgment had been poured out upon the em- 
pire, it was smitten with a blight which is destined to 
destroy it utterly. The period of its manifest decline 
began about A. D. 1800, and so rapid has been the 
process of the drying up of all its powers as a nation, 
that now it is but a shadow of its former greatness. 
For years past it has been known as the "sick man" 
of Europe ; nor has any cure been found for its wasting 
consumption. It is a well known fact that Turkey, as 
a political power, exists only by sufierance. She has 
no inherent strength, no financial power, no resources 
as a nation to enable her to stand against her enemies. 



52 * THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

Even as long ago as A. D. 1834, Lamartine in the 
French House of Deputies said: ^'Tlie Ottoman 
empire is no empire at all. It is a misshapen ag- 
glomeration of different races without cohesion between 
them — with mingled interests, without a language, 
without laws, without religion, without unity of pow- 
er. You see that the breath of life which animated 
it, namely religious fanaticism, is extinct ; you see that 
its fatal and blinded administration has devoured the 
race of conquerers, and that Turkey is perishing for 
want of Turks." A late resident in Turkey after re- 
counting her misfortunes, writes: "Her treasury ex- 
hausted, her trade and manufactures destroyed, her 
wonted revenues from the provinces and all her sources 
of wealth dried up, she sits an object of pitiable help- 
lessness among the nations." So weak and contemptible 
has she become, that to-day with her successful armies 
in the field, she must carefully obey the commands of 
the powers that protect her, or forfeit her life. A 
writer and traveler long resident in the East, after 
speaking of the waste, ruin and decay within the Turk- 
ish empire, uses these significant words — "It is not too 
much to say that there is more of human life wasted, 
and less supplied, (in Turkey) than in any other 
country. We see every day, life going out in the 
fairest portion of Europe, and the human race threaten- 
ed with extinction in a soil and climate capable of sup- 
porting the most abundant population. ' ' 

Now observe what is peculiar about the decline of 
the Turkish power. It has been brought about by causes 
within itself. It is not by powers from without, hostile 
to it, that it has been destroyed. On the contrary, 



THE DECLIXE OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE. 53 

it has been singularly protected, and exempted from 
foreign wars by the jealousy of European powers. The 
battle of Navarino, and the Russian war of A. D. 1828, 
were indeed severe blows to the power of the Ottoman 
empire, but they were not the causes of its decline. 

The causes are these. 1. Its government. Proph- 
ecy described it as the rule of ' 'serpents. " It was to be 
base, cruel and deadly. How literally this has been 
fulfilled, the dark annals of Turkish rule, or rather 
misrule tells us. There is nothing more terrible or 
oppressive in all history. It has been a government of 
weakness and wickedness combined, and under it the 
most glorious regions of the world, the lands of proph- 
ecy and of classic culture, the early homes of religion 
and of art, have been made desolate. Let us rejoice that 
it is near its end, and that this foul race of conquerers 
is doomed by the word of God, and the judgments of 
histor}^ to perish from the land it has ruined. A recent 
writer, whose history of the Saracen Conquests justly 
entitles him to be quoted as an authority, saj^s — ''The 
rule of the Turks is not government, it is the mere 
domination of a gang of robbers. If a burglar breaks 
into our house, we do not call it misgovernment ; and 
the so called government of the Turks is simply an act 
of burglary prolonged for centuries. " " Wherever' ' says 
Layard, "the Osmanli has placed his foot, he has bred 
fear and distrust. His visit has been one of oppression 
and rapine. The scarlet cap, and the wxll known garb 
of a Turkish irregular, are the signals for a grand 
panic. ' ' 

Read the accounts of Turkish barbarities, of their 
robberies and oppressions, practiced upon their own 



54 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

subjects in these latter days, and you may have some 
faint conception of what their rule has been for ages ; 
and 3^ou may understand, also, why under long centuries 
of oppression, the population of Turkey has decreased 
and become abject and base. Ever since the Crimean 
war, and in face of promised reforms, the testimony of 
the noblest man Christendom could send, would not 
stand in any Mahometan court of justice in the Turkish 
empire, against the vilest and most ignorant Moslem 
picked up from the gutter and hired for a piaster to 
testify in the case. The Mahometan law makes it 
impossible that the testimony of a Christian should 
be received as against that of a Moslem. No Christ- 
ian, be he prince or patriarch, can be the equal 
of the basest Moslem ; his life is spared only by suffer- 
ance. Cursed by such a government, we need not 
wonder that the Ottoman empire has had within itself 
terrible insurrections, and that it has been the author of 
its own weakness and wasting. Nor can this govern- 
ment be reformed. It is based on the Koran, w^hich 
furnishes both ci^dl and religious law for the Moslem. 
To change it, is to destroy the supremacy of the Turk. 
2. Another cause of its decay is polygamy. This is 
one of the chief social curses of Asia, and like a dead- 
ly blight, it has turned some of the fairest portions of the 
East into a desert. Destroying the sacredness of the 
family relation as instituted by God, it becomes a source 
of disorder and destruction in society. Some have 
claimed that Mahomet, by hmiting the number of wives 
to four, had in some measure reformed polygamy. B}^ 
no means. We cannot reform that which is essentially 
wrong^. The difference between taking; one wife and two, 



THE DECLINE OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE. 55 

is immeasurably great ; but the difference between two 
and two thousand is comparatively nothing. The first is 
a difference of principle ; the second, only of expense. 
The social life of the Turk, which finds its nourishment 
in the harem, is on this account low and base. Said an 
intelligent man, one who had resided twenty-five years 
in Syiia — "the Turks are the vilest people under the 
sun. Their beastiality would disgrace Sodom." 

3. The third cause of their decay is their religion. It 
was from the first a wild, fierce fanaticism, and so it is 
doomed to expire. At the outstart, its great principle 
of fatalism had a wonderful power in animating its fol- 
lowers ; but its last effects are ruinous in the extreme. 
When the fever of enthusiasm excited by it is over, 
this same doctrine leads to opposite results, and begets 
listlessness and inactivity. "Nothing," says Freeman, 
' 'is so energetic as a Mahometan nation in its youth ; 
nothing is so utterly feeble as a Mahometan nation in its 
old age." As the Koran is the chief authority both in 
religious and civil matters, reform is an impossibilit}^ 
in the Turkish empire. Reform is its destruction : re- 
ligion or the church, the family, and the government, 
are the three vital organs of society ; and when these 
are all bad, and incurably so, we can only wait for the 
time of the dissolution. There is no cure. In view of 
aU these causes which have brought down this mighty 
empire, once the terror of Europe, to its present exhaust- 
ed and decrepit condition, can we doubt the accuracy of 
the prophecy, uttered nine hundred years before this 
empire appeared in history ; — ' ' The water of the Euphra- 
tes was dried iip:^' do we not find within the empire 
itself, the judgment that has wasted its power, and 



56 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

evaporated all its strength? The ''waters of the Eu- 
phrates," once so broad, are now but as a little rill, 
and it too, shall soon disappear. It is a well known 
fact that Turkey to-da^^, owes its outwear d existence, 
simpl}^ to the jealousy of European powers ; and now 
a new^ danger threatens to obliterate it entirely from 
the map of Europe. There is no power in Turkey 
to hinder the troops of the Czar from reaching the gates 
of Constantinople, should they once start on their 
march. There might be a temporary flaming forth of the 
old religious fanaticism, and the famous w^r-cry of 
' 'Allah' ' be heard along the excited ranks of the Turks ; 
but it wdll only be a feeble echo of the shout that 
once rolled like the noise of the sea, from the hosts 
of Othman, or Mahomet II. The great question in 
Europe to-da}^, is not the conquest of Turkey, but how 
to get rid of the dead body of an old empire, and ad- 
minister on its effects to the satisfaction of all parties. 

Thus far w^e have been able to place prophecy and 
history side by side, and to confirm the revelations of 
the one, by the facts of the other. But we have come 
to a period in which history ends. Men are bus}^ writ- 
ing it day by day, and we look eagerly to see w^hat to- 
morrow mil bring. But the prophecy does not stop ; 
it runs on with confident utterances, saying, '•^and the 
ivater thereof was dried up, that the way of the Kings of 
the East might he prepared,'' 

The next act in the great drama, is the ' 'preparation 
of the way. ' ' Something is to transpire, which shall not 
only remove the curse of Mahometan rule from the 
Euphrates to the Mle, but it will also open up the way 
for another glorious event — a new rule, a new king- 



THE DECLINE OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE. 57 

clom — that of '-''Kings of the East.'' Even now God's 
engineers are preparing for work on this new way, and 
it may be that cannon and the sword, and the whirlmnd 
of battle, shall be among the divinelj^ appointed agencies 
in opening it up. Diplomacy and national jealousy 
may delay the result for a time, but it shall surely come 
in God's appointed hour, for the mouth of the Lord has 
spoken it. Three great powers, Austria, France, and 
England, are each bound by solemn and separate treat- 
ies to declare war on any state, and especially Russia, 
should it invade Turkish soil ; yet, in the providence 
of God, those treaties have been made nullities ! France 
will not uphold them, Austria cannot, and public 
sentiment in England will not suffer a war to keep the 
miserable Moslem rule in power. National ambition 
cannot stand supreme over the interests of humanity. 
The sentiment of the age, the demands of Christianity, 
and the pleadings of outraged and oppressed human- 
ity, demand that this nation of usurpers and serpent- 
rulers shall be driven out of Europe, and back to their 
native deserts in Asia. All cry for the new rule, — ''the 
Kings of the East. ' ' There is only one power in Christ- 
endom that sympathises with the Turk, and this is 
exactly in accordance with the intimations of prophec}^ 
It is that of the Pontiff in the Vatican. I will read the 
proof of this from the chief catholic organ in the 
w^orld: ''Russia," it says "is the most inveterate and 
malignant enemy of the Church of God, of all the 
sovereignties now standing on the globe. The domin- 
ion of the Turk, bad as it is, is more advantageous to 
catholic interests, both in Europe and Asia, than is the 
dominion of the Gzar." Prophecy 3^ou will observe. 



58 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

is silent as to the manner of "this preparation of the 
way. " It is not impossible that the arms of contend- 
ing European states should clash on the plains of 
Turkey. But certainly, prophecy does not specify in 
this connection any violent or notable war. That is to 
come at a later date. Nor is the ''time," during which 
the preparation of the way shall extend, given • but 
certain it is, that events indicate speedy and great 
changes, and we can live in daily and confident expect- 
ation of their coming to pass. 

We cannot set times and dates for the future, when 
God has not revealed them ; but in view of the rapid 
developments of the present, it is not presumption to 
say that there is some one now alive, who shall before 
his earthly career ends, look upon a new map of the 
world, in which he will search in vain for the empire of 
the Turks. 

But, the Mahometan power removed, what next? 
What power will take its place ? What is the nature of 
that strife which makes it necessar}^ for Turkish rule 
to be out of the way? When Gibbon closed his thril- 
ling history of the crusades, he summed up in a few 
words the story of its carnage and desolations, described 
the departure of the feeble remnants of the mighty hosts 
of ChiTstendom from the shores of Palestine, and then 
added as a last touch, these words: — ''and a mournful 
and solitary silence prevailed along the coast, which had 
so long resounded with the World's Debate. ' ' That de- 
bate was whether Christianity or Islamism should rule 
in S}T^ia. But it was not closed then. The "World's 
Debate" broke out again in war. Strange to say, the 
Crimean war grew out of the question of the keys of a 



.THE DECLINE OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE. 59 

church in Jerusalem, just as the crusades grew out of the 
oppression of Christians in their worship, in the same 
place. To-day, the impending conflict is of the same 
character. It may not be known to all, but the ofldcial 
appeal of the Sultan's government calls upon his faith- 
ful subjects to enlist in "the Holy war against the Infi- 
del " The firman telegraphed through the empire, 
calling for subscriptions to the war fund, entitles it, 
"Religious War Aid Fund." This i§ its aspect on the 
Turkish side. On the other, it^is proclaimed to be a 
movement in behalf of oppressed Christians. If the 
crescent and the cross meet, who can doubt the issue ? 
But it is not by the sword, that the true gospel tri- 
umphs. Sword and battle may prepare the way ; they 
are God's pioneers to remove barriers, and take away 
hindrances, but the gospel is something essentially 
difierent in its workings. 

Imagine the oppression of Turkish rule taken off the 
region that it now occupies, the crescent supplanted 
by the cross on the dome of St. Sophia, and the mosque 
of Omar — what wonderful and beneficient changes 
must follow? A land, by nature one of the richest 
and most fertile on the earth, a land which draws its 
pilgrims from every quarter of the earth, to visit the 
ruins of its former greatness, would soon be redeemed 
and made to bloom like a garden. "The Kings of the 
East," the new power that is to take the place of the 
old, who are they ? This is the question the future is to 
answer. Prophecy gives us hints concerning it, which 
we will consider on a future occasion. I can only say 
now, it is not Russia. The latter may be God's chosen 
pioneer to open the way for the "Kings of the East," 



60 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

but it is not the power destined to rule over the land 
of promise. 

And now, if the interpretation I have given you is 
true, we are able to know our. place in the course of 
time. The seventh trumpet is sounding, and its stir- 
ring notes of mingled warning and mercy are carried 
on the air. Great voices in heaven, the voices of those 
who watch the struggles of the Church on earth, are 
crying in anticipation, — "the kingdoms of this world are 
become the kingdomi^of our Lord and of his Christ, 
and he shall reign forever and ever. ' ' Surely it is some- 
thing to be thankful for, that our lot has been cast in 
so glorious an era, one so full of hope and mighty incen- 
tives to labor for Christ. The power of Christ is 
daily becoming more manifest in the world, and his 
enemies are more bitter and outspoken. The hour 
also, seems to be at hand, when he shall make a still 
more glorious revelation of his power. Who among 
you can rejoice in the triumphs of his cross, and look 
with eager hope for the day of his appearing? 

Again, if it be true that we are now on the eve of 
the fulfillment of the prophecy that declared the drying 
up of the Euphratean waters, we know that it is time for 
us to be specially on our guard ; for this is the mes- 
sage which the Spirit utters ; ' 'Behold, I come as a 
thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his gar- 
ments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." 



Lecture IV. 



mkt ^itt 



[Rev. 16 : 12.] 

AND the water therof was dried up, that the way of the Kings of the 
East might be prepared. 

THE judgment symbolized by the pouring out of the 
sixth vial upon the great river Euphrates, is to 
find its fulfillment in the gradual decline of the Turkish 
Empire. But the same prophecy declares that this 
event shall be followed b}" another — a preparation for 
a new rule — that of ''the Kings of the East." The 
manner or method of this preparation is not described, 
nor is the time of its duration given ; nor is there an}^ 
description of the rule of the Kings of the East. It is 
an event sure to come, but which can be recognized 
with certainty only when it does come to pass. This 
much, however, is fairly inferable from the prophecy : 
First, it is an advanced step toward the Kingdom of 
Christ ; it is to be regarded as a blessing, and not as a 
''woe" or judgment, like the Ottoman power. Second, 
it is reasonable to say that this power called "the Kings 
of the East," is one already in existence at the time 
when the revelator is writing. You will observe that 
when any of the prophets, and especially St. John, 
speaks of a new power appearing for the first time in 

(61) 



62 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

history, he describes its origin. Thus he describes the 
Saracen power as "locusts" born out of the ''smoke." 
The Turkish power is described as ' 'horsemen' ' coming 
forth from the Euphrates. But here he alhides to the 
Kings of the East as alread^^ existing, for the "great 
river Euphrates," until dried up, was an obstacle in 
their path. His language also fairly implies that this 
power already existing, is waiting its opportunity in 
time to take its rightful and God-appointed place. 
This opportunity is to come after the downfall of the 
Turkish Empire. So much we can fairly gather from 
the prophecy itself. 

In attempting to reach some conclusions as to the 
nature of this predicted preparation and power, I wish 
to repeat what I said in a previous discourse — that, 
while the prophecy is sure, my application of it, or any 
man's application of it, to events yet future, maybe 
erroneous. In interpreting unfulfilled prophecy, the 
only safe rule is to keep in view the way in which 
prophecy has already passed into history. God's meth- 
od of working in nature does not change ; the past is a 
type of the future ; so also is it in His providential 
government of the world. There is indeed an order 
of advancement, a forward and upward march to the 
appointed end ; but through all, run the same principles 
and methods which have been illustrated in the history 
of the past and present. Again, we must interpret 
prophecy by prophecy. That which is to come, is re- 
lated to that which is past. There is a unity in prophecy 
as there is in history ; one great design runs through 
both. So it often happens that some part of a prophecy, 
dark and puzzling by itself, becomes luminous and in- 



THE KINGS OF THE EAST. 68 

telligible when fitted to its place among the other parts 
that go to make up the whole design. Keeping these 
principles in \4ew, let us attempt th€ solution of the 
question before us. 

One class of interpreters have seen in this declaration, 
'-'And the water thereof teas dried up^ that the loay of the 
Kings of the East might he prepared^'' nothing more than 
a declaration in general, that the downfall of the Turkish 
Empire would begin a new^ era for the kingdoms of 
Asia, by opening up their way for the enjoyment of a 
higher civilization, and for the possession of the Gospel. 
Those old kingdoms and dynasties, so long cursed with 
oppression, ignorance, and superstition, would feel the 
power of a new life among them, consequent upon the 
introduction of Christian civilization. The removal of 
the Turkish power would prepare the way for the evan- 
gelization of the kingdoms of the East. 

All this is undoubted^ true. The Turkish rule, the 
embodiment of Islamism, has been a curse to Asia as 
well as a plague to Europe. It has spread like a flood 
over the great highway of the world's trade and com- 
merce, and for 800 years made it impassable. Europe had 
to seek Asia by the Cape of Good Hope. The social life 
and the government established by Mahometans have 
been a ''hindrance" to the nations of the East ; Mahomet- 
anism more than heathenism, has been an obstacle to the 
spread of the Gospel. It is death for any of its adher- 
ents to embrace Christianity. All of the essential con- 
ditions of its rule are hostile to the Gospel, foi- 
the latter does not thrive in an atmosphere of tyranny' 
and immorality. Unquestionably, the removal of the 
Turkish rule would be a blessing to ci\ilization, to 



64 THE p:astern question. 

humanity and to religion. It would open the old channel 
of trade and commerce to the heart of Asia, so long 
blocked up, and along this highway would go the in- 
fluences that would renew the lands of the East. The 
manhood of oppressed Christians would be developed, 
the blessings of a just rule and stable laws be brought 
to them, education would displace ignorance and super- 
stition, and thus, all w^orking together, would prepare the 
wa}^ for the triumph of Christianity. It is not unreasona- 
ble to suppose that the utter downfall of the Turkish 
Empire would mark the beginning of new and better 
dsijs, for Asia. In this the interpreter of prophecy, 
the student of history, and the statesman, all agree. 

But is this all the prophecy means? If so, it tells 
nothing new, beyond what is affirmed in general terms 
in scores of other places in the Word of God. • The 
Grospel proclaims itself to be a world-conquering relig- 
ion. It predicts its own triumph, and in sublime con- 
fidence asserts that all convulsions and tumults, all 
overturning of empires and uprisings of new ones, are 
directl}^ in its interest. It asserts, again and again, 
that it is a light for all lands, and that all that hinders 
it shall be cast down. In view of these general predict- 
ions, certainly it would not require any great gift of 
the spirit of prophecy to affirm, that the overturning 
of the Turkish Empire w^ould be in the interests of 
Christianity, and would prove a great blessing to the peo- 
ple of the East; but if the spirit of prophecy be neces- 
sary to affirm this result, then the mantle of the prophets 
must rest upon the vast majority of our editors and 
public men, for they are vehemenently affirming the 
same declaration. The view of the interpreters just 



THE KINGS OF THE EAST. 65 

alluded to, is doubtless true iu general, but it does not 
seem to me to meet all the demands of the case. 

1. Naturally, with the rule of the Turks destroyed, 
we think of the land over which it extended — and, the 
more especially, as it happens to be the land of proph- 
ecy, in which the predictions of this Word center. 

If you will look at a modern map, you will find that 
the Turkish rule extends over that region of countiy 
lying between the river Euphrates and the Nile. It is 
the very region which God gave, by solemn covenant, 
to Abraham and his sons, to be theirs forever. 

We read in Genesis, 15 : 18 : In the same day the 
Lord made a covenant with Abram, sajnng : ''Unto th}' 
seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt, 
unto the great river, the river Euphrates." Again, in 
repeating the covenant, Jehovah said: "I will give 
unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein 
thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an ever- 
lasting possession ; and I will be their God." Genesis 
17: 8. 

This is the land upon which the "waters' of the river 
Euphrates" have overflowed, and from which they are 
to be "dried up." Remembering that prophecy re- 
veals to us God's plans and purposes for the future, 
what people should we expect to eventually occupy this 
land, if not those to whom He gave it for an everlast- 
ing possession? God appoints the lot of nations as 
well as of men. It is not by accident that one is 
planted here, and another there. Suppose the Span- 
iard instead of the Puritan, had settled upon the 
shores of New England, how different would the his- 
tory of this country have been : or, had the Latin 



66 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

instead of the Saxon races found their homes and 
dominion in the north of Europe, the history of its 
civilization would have been changed. 

For reasons of the highest importance in the devel- 
opment of His own plans for the redemption of man, 
God assigned a chosen land to the ''Chosen People." 
The land was of His choice, and the title deed to it is 
invested, while time shall last, in the descendants of 
Abraham. The Christian will recognize the right of 
the Jew to his ancestral lands ; and even among the 
Mahometans there is a traditional saying, ''that they 
do not own the Holy Land, but ontyhold it until God's 
purpose shall be fulfilled." The land or locality now 
held under Moslem rule, leads us to think of the Jews 
as its rightful kings or rulers, because it belongs to 
them by a di\dne charter that has never been repealed. 
John wrote the Revelation twenty 3^ears after the de- 
struction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews 
from the Holy Land — and his language tried b}^ a fair 
and honest interi3retation, certainlj^ means that the 
powder which is to come in after the removal of the Tur- 
kish rule, is a rightful one, now withheld or restrained 
by certain obstacles. 

2. Observe another hint or intimation which is given 
in the language of the prophecy : the phrase, "Kings of 
the East" or "from the rising of the sun," evidently 
designates something else than ordinary kingdoms and 
rulers, for we can see by what follows in the fourteenth 
verse, that they stand separate and distinct from "the 
kings of the earth and of the whole world." 

Remember that we are to interpret this language in 
the light of Old Testament distinctions and usage. Of 



THE KINGS OF THE EAST. 67 

what other people save of the Jews, can it be affirmed 
that God has chosen them from among all the families 
of the earth to be a nation of ''kings and priests unto 
Him?" Is it not true that, in distinction from "the 
kings of the earth and of the whole world," he has 
chosen them for a peculiar mission, and to be the wit- 
nesses alike of his mercy and his wTath through the 
ages ? 

8. As the revelator draws all his imagery from the 
Old Testament, or in accordance with its usages, the 
allusion in this prophecy is evidently to Isaiah 44 ; 27 — 
"Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer — that saith to the 
deep, be dry: and I will dry up thy rivers." This, as 
you will see, refers to the restoration of the Jews from 
the Babylonian captivity. * One hundred and fifty years 
before that event came to pass, Isaiah prophesied as to 
the manner in which it was to be done. He names not 
only the king whom God would raise up to accomplish 
it, but he describes the particular act on which, as on 
a pivot, the whole fortunes of war and empire turned. 
Babylon, the mighty capital of the Babylonian em- 
pire, which with iron hand held the Jews in bondage, 
was pronounced impregnable. So when Cyrus, the 
Persian, approached the city with his army, the proud 
descendants of Nebuchadnezzar simply closed the gates 
of the city, and behind the towering and massive walls 
continued thek feasts, careless of danger. The river 
Euphrates ran through the city, and Cyrus conceived 
the plan, as Heroditus tells us, of diverting the river 
from its course, and then assaulting the city through 
its dried-up channels. This he accomplished, and thus 
in the manner described by Isaiah, the great Babylon- 



68 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

ian empire was overturned, and a way opened for the 
return of the Jews. On this pivotal point, on which 
everything turns for the moment, the eyes of the proph- 
et rest. Isaiah writes, "God saith I will dry up thy 
rivers," Jeremiah writes, a "sword is upon the inhab- 
itants of Babylon, a drought is upon her waters, and 
they shall be dried up. I will dry up her sea and make 
her springs dry." We say, "that histor}^' repeats it- 
self," that is, each nation is continually finding in 
its history circumstances corresponding essentially with 
former events, only they are higher up as it were in an 
ascending spiral. 

So prophecy, which is the foreshadowing of history, 
finds likenesses, and declares them by using the image- 
ry which described one set, of events already fulfilled, 
to set forth another of the same general character still 
in the future. 

How significant then is the allusion of St. John to 
the former deliverance from the Babylonian captivity I 
The people whose deliverance then turned upon the 
drying up of the Euphrates, were the Jews, whom 
Babylonish power prevented from returning to their 
own land. Again, he tells us, the water of the Eu- 
phrates is to "be dried up" — that is, a power over- 
come, that the way may be prepared for a people kept 
back by it from their inheritance. 

Starting with these points or suggestions drawn from 
the passage before us, let us turn to the general scope 
of prophecy as it treats of the future of the Jews, 
and see if any hght will shine upon this "dark saying." 

If John is a true prophet, he must be in harmony 
with Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Daniel, and Zechariah. 



THE KINGS OF THE EAST. 69 

If he is here speaking of the Jews, what he says must 
correspond with what the prophets preceding him have 
testified concerning the same people. You are familiar 
with the predictions by which it was disclosed to 
Abraham, that his seed should inherit Canaan for an 
everlasting possession. You know also, that after a 
period of over 400 3'ears spent in bondage, the predict- 
ion was realized. The seed of Abraham, preserved as 
by a miracle, came in possession of the promised 
land ; but when led into it, the Divine Voice announced 
a series of judgments that should fall upon them, in 
case they were false to Jehovah. These are distinctly 
recorded in the twenty-sixth chapter of the book of 
Leviticus. If 3^ou will carefully examine that chapter, 
you will find that it is an exact forecasting, in their 
order, of the terrible judgments which were to come, 
and which haA^e come upon Israel. The last in the 
series is described as the most severe and destructive. 
It is a description of the judgment which began at the 
destruction of Jerusalem. ''I will destroy'' your high 
places ; I wiU make your cities waste and bring your 
sanctuaries unto destruction ; and I will bring the land 
into desolation, and your enemies which dwell therein 
shall be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the 
heathen, and your land shall be desolate, and yom^ cit- 
ies waste ; and they that are left of you shall pine away 
in their iniquity in your enemies' lands, and also in the 
iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with 
them." "I will sift the house of Israel among the na- 
tions like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the 
least grain fall upon the earth." Amos 9:9. ''I will 
deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the 



70 ; THE EASTERN QUESTION. 



earth- for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a 
taunt, and curse in all places whither I shall drive them.' ' 
Jer. 24^,9, 10. Such are a few of the many predict- 
ions con^todiig their last dispersion among the Gen- 
tiles. And'^^li^s history to say concerning them ? 
*'The land of Ju^^^s indeed a desolation; its cities 
are in ruins, its fields naked and bare, so that the plains, 
which were once the granaries of the world, do not 
yield enough of corn to supply the scanty population 
abiding there." Jerusalem is "trodden down of the 
Gentiles," according to the prediction of Jesus Christ. 
The place of the sanctuary is profaned by the mosque 
and worship of the false prophet. Taken away from 
the land of his fathers, the Jew^has indeed been "sifted" 
like corn among the nations. We find him in all 
lands, north, south, east, and west. He is among 
all people, yet separated and distinct from all. His 
national characteristics are as clearly manifest now, as 
in the days of Solomon. The sons of Abraham on the 
banks of the Mississippi are still marked by the feat- 
ures of their illustrious sire, and many a Jewish maid- 
en represents the fair counterpart of the beauteous 
Rebecca ; and still, perhajos, some son of Jacob weeps 
for joy as he kisses her and discovers the loving kin- 
ship between them. The Jew is the miracle of history. 
By all the laws that govern other tribes and races, he 
ought to have been absorbed and lost among the nations, 
as the waters of a smaller stream are lost in the cur- 
rent of a mighty river. But instead of this, he has 
survived the races of his conquerers and oppressors. 
Egypt and her Pharaohs, the Babylonians, the Persians, 
the Grecians, and the Romans — all these are dead and 



THE KIXGS OF THE EAST. 71 

buried in their graves beyond the hope of resurrection. 
But the Jew still lives, as when Pharaoh oppressed 
him ; or when he sung his songs by the rivers of Baby- 
lon in sad exile, or when the Komans carried him awaj^ 
to wander for ages among the Gentiles. Who can 
adequatel}^ describe their sorrows, or pictm-e the hard- 
ships of their lot ! Everywhere they have been pursued, 
tormented, persecuted and slaughtered. Liter alty their 
name has been a taunt, and an epithet of scorn and 
derision. Romans and Christians slaughtered them, 
or drove them as fugitives to the uttermost parts of the 
earth, until, in the time of Constantine, there were only 
500 of them left in Palestine. The Mahometans slew 
them by thousands. The history of the Crusades is 
stained with the accounts of the murders of this hap- 
less people, in the cities and towns of Europe. Gibbon 
tells us, in touching lines, of the thousands of helpless 
Jews who fell as victims to the fanatical rage of the 
christian Crusaders. Sir Walter Scott, in describing 
the sufferings of this people, writes: "Except, perhaps, 
the flying-fish, there was no race existing on the earth, 
in the air, or in the water, who were the objects of 
such an unremitting, general and relentless persecution 
as the Jews of this period. Upon the shghtest and 
most unreasonable pretences, as well as upon accusa- 
tions the most absurd and groundless, their persons 
and their property were exposed to every turn of popu- 
lar fury ; for Norman, Saxon, Dane and Briton, how- 
ever adverse the races were to each other, contended 
which should look with the greatest detestation upon 
a people whom it was accounted a point of rehgion to 
hate, to revile, to despise, to plunder and to persecute." 



72 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

Thus, for eighteen centuries, have the Jews been des- 
poiled and persecuted. They have been a proverb, a 
hissing and a by- word, as prophecy proclaimed more 
than three thousand years ago. Yet 10,000,000 of 
them remain. Why are they so strangety presevered? 

In this same connection you will find a prediction 
concerning Jerusalem. It was written by the prophet 
Zechariah after the Babylonian captivity. ''Behold, I 
will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the 
people round about. And in that day will I make a 
burdensome stone for all people ; all that burden Jerusa- 
lem themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all 
the people of the earth be gathered together against it. ' ' 
Zech. 12 : 2-3. What is the testimony of history with 
reference to this ? According to the word of our Lord, 
Jerusalem has been ''trodden down of the Gentiles" 
for eighteen centuries ; but during all that time it 
has been a plague and a burden to those who held it. 
The Romans found it a burden. It cost the Saracens 
untold treasure and blood to keep it, and finally, the}^ 
were destroyed. The Crusaders held it for a century, 
but found it a burdensome stone, greater than Europe 
could carry. The Turks have held it, and have already 
had three wasting wars in its behalf. Jerusalem in ruins 
has been a question of debate, — a perpetual strife and 
burden to the nations. 

And now let us take a step farther. On the same 
page of prophecy, written by the same pen, we find 
declarations affirming the restoration of Jerusalem, and 
of the chosen people to the inheritance of their fathers. 
Let us hear some of these predictions : ' 'I will bring 
them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather 



THE KINGS OF THE EAST. 73 

them oat of Assyria ; and I will bring them into the 
land of Gilead and Lebanon." Zech. 10: 10. This 
was written after the Bab3^1onian captivity, so it cannot 
refer to the return at that time. Jesus Christ said: 
"And they shall fall by the edge of the sword. Jeru- 
salem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the 
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Luke 21 : 24. Does 
not this imply that there is a time of restoration? 

Paul writes: "For I would not, brethren, that ye 
should be ignorant of this mystery (that is, the judg- 
ment which has fallen upon the Jews, ) lest ye should 
be wise in your o.wn conceits, that blindness in part 
is hapxDened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles 
be come in." The universal testimony of the prophets 
is this : ' 'I wall bring them again into the land that I 
gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many 
fishers saith the Lord, and they shall fish them ; and 
after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt 
them from every mountain and from every hill, and 
out of the holes of the rocks." 

The prophet Zechariah writing after the Babylonish 
captivity, records this prediction concerning the chosen 
people : ' 'And they shall be as mighty men which tread 
down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the 
battle : and they shall fight because the Lord is with 
them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded." 
(One might fancy that there is an allusion here to those 
whom St. John describes as "the great army of horse- 
men.") "And I will strengthen the house of Judah, 
and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring 
them again to place them ; for I have mercy upon 
them ; and they shall be as though I had not cast them 



74 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

off; for I am the Lord their God and will hear them. 
And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and 
their heart shall rejoice as through wine ; yea their 
children shall see it, and be glad ; their heart shall re- 
joice in the Lord. I will hiss, for them and gather them ; 
for I have redeemed them : and the}^ shall increase as 
they have increased. And I will sow them among the 
people ; and they shall remember me in far countries : 
and they shall live with their children and turn again. 
I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, 
and gather them out of Assyria ; (that is, like as He 
had formerly delivered them from tjieir Egyptian and 
Assyrian captivity, so would He again restore them, ) 
and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and 
Lebanon ; and place shall not be found for them. And 
he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall 
smite the waves in the sea; — (God shall prepare the 
way for their return on the one side, as He did when 
He divided the Red Sea, for the escape of Israel, ) — and 
all the deeps of the river shall dry up, (the 
allusion here is to the waters of the Euphrates, the 
representation of Assyria : ) and the pride of Assyria 
shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall 
depart away. And I will strengthen them in the Lord ; 
and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the 
Lord." Zech. 10: 5-12. 

A careful examination of the prophecies concerning 
the future of the Jews will show that their return from 
Babylonian captivity, and the circumstances attending 
it, are used as a type of their return from their last cap- 
tivity and dispersion among the Gentiles. For exam- 
ple, Isaiah writes ; ''thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer , 



THE KINGS OF THE EAST. 75 

that confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth 
the counsel of his messengers ; that saith to Jerusalem, 
Thou shalt be inhabited ; and to the cities of Judah, Ye 
shall be built ; and I will raise up the decayed places 
thereof; that saith to the deep, Be dry ; and I will dry 
up thy rivers." (Is. 44 : 26, 27.) Here the reference 
is primarily to the return from Babylon ; but we have 
only to read on in the next chapter to find that he uses 
it as the type of a still more glorious restoration in the 
future. We find then, that Isaiah and Zechariah de- 
clare that the drying up of the waters of the river Eu- 
phrates shall prepare a highway for the return of Israel 
to their own land ; and here in the Revelation, St. John 
declares that the same event will prepare the way for 
the Kings of the East. 

If we let prophecy interpret prophecy, what shall we 
say other than this, — that the Kings of the East are that 
peculiar people whom God has from the ages and cen- 
turies past, appointed to rule in the regions between 
the river of Egypt and the great river Euphrates. 

We have found the first part of these prophecies lit- 
erally fulfilled ; by what ^'ight, then, can we give a 
spiritual interpretation to that which remains to be ful- 
filled, and remove it from the realms of history to 
that of mystical and spiritual fulfillment? The only 
sensible and safe rule is to say, that just as part of the 
prophecy, that which relates to the dispersion and cap- 
tivity of the Jews, has been translated into history, 
in like manner what remains shall be fulfilled, that is, — 
the dispersion was a literal one, so shall the restoration 
be. The Jew shall again dwell in peace in the land of 
his fathers, for the mouth of his God hath spoken it. 



76 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

In view of all this, you can, my hearers, decide for 
yourselves as to the identity of the Kings of the East. 
But as it seems to me, God in his pro^ddence is now 
preparing the wa}^ for the calling back of his ancient 
people to their ancestral homes. And this, as I propose 
to show you in the next lectui-e, is one of the predicted 
steps toward the coming end. 

Suffer me in conclusion, to draw a practical les- 
son from this. I have been speaking to you of the 
fate of the Jews, the people upon whom God in a special 
manner poured out his mercy, and to whom he sent the 
promised Redeemer. You know the secret of the 
judgment that has sent them forth as homeless wanderers 
on the face of the earth. They meet you every daj^ to 
remind you how mercy outraged and despised, turns into 
wrath. You are free to pass judgment upon them, and 
to say that their terrible sentence is just. But who 
art thou, O man! that judgest another, when thou art 
in the same condemnation? Jesus Christ, the Lord, 
has stood at the door of your heart, seeking an en- 
trance, but you would not prepare the way. You 
said in your unbelief, "I will not have this man to 
reign over me. Depart, thou Christ, I know thee not." 
Wherein is the unbelief of a Jew more criminal than 
that of you Gentiles, who have been taught from your 
youth the truth as it is in Jesus? Beware, lest often 
rejected. He turn away and leave you to your fate. 
There is no judgment so terrible as outraged and 
despised mercy. 



Lecture V. 




[Rev. 10: 7. 11: 14-15.] 

BUT in the days of the voice of the seventh an^el, Avhen he shall begin 
to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declar- 
ed to his servants, the prophets. 

The second woe is past; and behold, the third woe cometh quickly. 
And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great v<nces in heaven, 
saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever. 

IN the opening lecture in this series, prophec}^ was 
compared to a chart placed in the hands of voyag- 
ers sailing for the first time across the sea, to a. new 
world. The chart is infallible, and on it are marked 
the rocks, and headlands, and lighthouses, hj which 
the course to be sailed, lies. As far as the voyagers 
have actually gone on their journey, they have been 
able to verify the accuracy of the chart. It has brought 
them comfort and satisfaction, inasmuch as they are 
fully convinced that they are sailing under the direction 
of one who knows, the way, and so is able to bring 
them to the desired haven. But if the chart is com- 
plete, they can also anticipate the time of their arrival, 
and say from what is revealed to them, ''we are far 
off, " or ' 'we are near the end. ' ' At least, knowing what 
is past, they may say, "such and such objects must 

(77) 



78 THE easteii:n question. 

first appear to us in tlieir proper order, before we 
reach the sliore. 

Can we say the same after studying tliat wonderful 
map of the future, drawn by tlie hands of prophets and 
apostles inspired by God? In so far as prophecy has 
been fulfilled we are able, at least in some measure, to 
verify it with the testimony of histor}^ But with re- 
gard to that which is manifestly unfulfilled as yet, can 
we form ^ny well founded conjectures from it, as to 
how far we are from the end? An end there is, — an era 
when the conflicts and judgments of time shall cease. 
The word of God in language that cannot be misun- 
derstood, proclaims the final triumph of Jesus Christ, 
and His glorious reign in peace and righteousness. Our 
absent Lord is coming a second time, in glory instead 
of humiliation. The plain positive language of Script- 
ure is — ''This same Jesus which is taken up from you 
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have 
seen Him go into heaven. ' ' Acts 1:11. 

But how soon? May He come to-morrow^; or do 
events, as yet unfulfilled concerning His kingdom, 
place that "second coming" in the remote futm^e? 
There are those who confidently say, — "the end is at 
hand." Nothing hinders the coming of that august 
day when the Lord shall appear in the clouds, and as 
with the voice of an archangel, and the trump of God, 
wake the dead that sleep in Jesus ; and translate 
those who are alive and believe in Him, to meet Him in 
the air. They tell us that faith is weak, and love 
cold; that corruption abounds; that the church is 
powerless, and society, diseased to the core, is ready 
for dissolution. All these are to them the signs of the 



STEPS TOWARD THE END. 79 

coming end. 

It is curious to observe that since the time of the 
apostles, tliere has always been a class of men who 
were looking for the end of the world in their days. 
They have expected that when they left the world, the 
great drama of God's pro^ddence would come to an 
end, and that dissolving nature would form part of 
their own obsequies. But the}^ have died, and ages have 
gone ; the sun still shines, the mystery of human life is 
continued, and the end is not 3^et. Jesus Christ dis- 
coursing on this very subject, warned his disciples 
against hurried anticipations of the end, saying, ''see 
that ye be not troubled ; for all these things must come 
to pass ; but the end is not yet. ' ' Men are always dispos- 
ed to hasten the fulfillment of God's purposes, and to 
confound the beginning with the end. They forget the 
slow patient method of God's working, and the ages of 
delay, as measured by mortals, which have always 
characterized the ripening of his purposes. Perhaps 
our first impressions upon reading prophecy, uncon- 
sciously to ourselves, awaken anticipations of haste 
which the facts, if we only considered them, would not 
justify. When we read history where the events of a 
century are recorded on a few pages, read in a moment 
of time, it seems as if battle followed on the heels of 
battle, and that mankind did nothing but fight. We 
are oblivious of the fact that long years intervened be- 
tween the recorded events. 

So with prophecy, which is only history written be- 
forehand. It reads as if all things were in perpetual 
commotion. One thunder peal has not died away un- 
til the next breaks on our ears. Trumpet sounds after 



80 



THE EASTERN QUESTION. 



trumpet, and the wondrous panorama brings events 
before ns in such rapid succession, that we lose all 
sense of time, and look for the next moment to bring 
the final crash. To deliver ourselves from this feeling 
of panic and alarm with which man}^ read prophecy, we 
must remember that it is the forecasting of centuries 
and ages of time. 

In the opposite extreme are those who have deferred 
the end to so remote a period, that it has no practical 
effect upon their hopes and as])irations. They stand 
practically among the scoffers of the last days, sajdng, 
''Where is the promise of his coming? for since the 
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were 
from the beginning of the creation. ' ' Whether it is 
worse to live under a delusion as to the time of the end, 
or in forgelfulness of it, I will not attempt to decide. 
But let us for our own profit, carefully consider the 
testimony of God's word. 

You will remember that the woes symbolized by the 
''locusts," and the "horsemen from the Euphrates," 
which we identified with the Saracens, and the Turk- 
ish power, occured under the soundings of the fifth 
and sixth trumpets. If this identification be correct, 
we are now in the period of time measured by the 
sounding of the seventh trumpet, or as the same period 
is marked by Daniel, in the time when the Ancient of 
Days is executing judgment. Dan. 7:9. In this opinion 
all writers of any authority agree. The Revelation of 
St. John proclaims this period to be the last one of 
judgment and conflict with anti- christian and world- 
powers. We read in Rev. 10: 5-7. "And the angel 
which I saw stand upon the sea and the earth lifted up 



STEPS TOWARD THE END. 81 

his hand to heaven, and sware b}^ Him that liveth lor 
ever and ever, that there should be time no longer," 
(Greek — ^'that the time shall be no more") but in the 
days of the voice of the seventh angel^ ivhen he shall begin 
to sounds the mystery of God should be finished^ as he 
hath dedared to his servants the prophets,'' 

Observe what is affirmed by this passage. It is not 
that the end of the world is to follow upon the close of 
the era represented b}^ the seventh trum^jet. Some 
have been led into a strange misinterpretation of the 
statement of the revelator, by the clause in our English 
version reading, ''that there should be time no longer." 
They have supposed it was a declaration, that time in 
the abstract should cease to be, or in other words, that 
the great end of human history was now reached, and the 
drama of the present world was to close forever. But 
the original shows this to be a mistake. It is literall}^, 
''that the time should be no longer," that is, as 
explained in the next verse, the time of "the mys- 
tery of God," when the thunders of His judgments 
were sounding against reigning iniquity, apostacy 
and corruption. This period of conflict and judg- 
ment is to be continued until the pouring out of 
the seventh idal, the last one under the seventh trum- 
pet, is completed. Then "the judgment shall no longer 
be;" the period of judgment is at an end. All this 
accords with the subsequent statement in the Revel- 
ation. When the seventh vial is poured out, there are 
"thunderings," but never after it. 

Then, the mystery of God is finished. The rebellious 
and hostile powers are subdued and broken, and the way 
prepared for the establishment of the Messianic era, the 



82 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

glad millennium, the glorious reign of Christ, in which 
sliall be fulfilled the joyous eiy, ^Hhe kingdoms of the 
icorld are become the kingdoms of oar Lord and of His 
Christ. ' ' In this testimony all the prophets agree. The 
language of Daniel (7: 14) coincides perfectly with 
that of St. John. After describing the period of judg- 
ment, he sa3^s, '•'Behold, one like the Son of Man; and 
there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a king- 
dom, that all people, nations, and languages, should 
serve Him : His dominon is an everlasting dominion, that 
shall not pass away." Isaiah, from his watchtower, 
seeing the same period in the future, cries, "thej^ shall 
not hurt nor destroy in all ni}^ hoty mountain ; for the 
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the 
waters coA^er the sea." Is. 11: 9. In describing the 
Messiah's reign, the Psalmist says, "In His daj^s shall 
tbe righteous flourish ; and abundance of peace so long 
as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also, 
from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of 
the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness, shall 
lick the dust. All nations shall call Him blessed." 
Ps. 72. Zechariah, wTites, "And the Lord shall be 
king over all the earth ; in that da}^ there shall be one 
Lord and His name one." Zech. 14: 9. There are 
many such testimonies uttered by the prophets, all show- 
ing that they believed in a coming time when the 
powers of a hostile w^orld would be utterly overthrown, 
and their discomfiture followed by a long and happ}^ 
reign of gospel truth. All interpreters of prophecy, 
nay, all who l^elieve in the Scriptures, are agreed as to 
the certainty of this cA^ent. But there is a variety of 
views as to the time and manner of its coming to pass. 



STEPS TOWARD THE END. 83 

Some hold that it is to be preceded and inaugurated by 
the personal and literal coming of Jesus Christ to reign 
on the earth. Others believe that it is to be followed 
by a sudden and desperate revival of wickedness, and 
that then the second coming of Christ will take 
place, and the period of final judgment begin ; after 
which, the former constitution of the earth having passed 
away, the "new heavens and the new earth," the final 
and eternal abode of redeemed man, shall be estab- 
lished. Others again, make the Millennial period and 
the ''new heaven and the new earth" the same. With- 
out inquiring, now, which of these is the true ^dew, we 
know this for a certainty— that the period itself has not 
come. For it would be a mockery of all right inter- 
pretation of language, to apply the prophetical descrip- 
tions of the Millennial era to any period of human 
history in the past. But is it near ? In the order of 
events of the future, given us by St. John and Daniel, 
it comes immediately after the completed outpouring of 
the seventh vial, under the seventh trumpet. The sim- 
ple question then for us to decide is, — have all the 
events described as coming to pass under the sounding 
of the seventh trumpet been fully realized in history? 
What these events are, you T\ill find described under 
the seven vials, for they rec(>rd more fully the ''third 
woe." 

If all the events thus described, have passed into 
history, it is strange that no one has as yet been able 
to identify them. And until they are pointed out, we 
have a right to say that the predictions are as yet, un- 
fulfilled i^rophecy. Natural^ there will be about 
unfulfilled prophecy much obscurity — many things 



84 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

which we eauiiot understand until the event comes lo 
pass. But still some great leading facts will stand out 
so clearly, that we cannot mistake the general course 
of the prophec}' . In this case, there are among others, 
two events which as it seems to me, are plahily placed 
between us and the Millennial time. 

I. The first is the restoration of the Jews, and their 
conversion to Christianit3\ I have already pointed 
out to you the reasons for the belief in their ultimate 
return to the land of their fathers. These reasons 
are found in the oath and covenant pf Jehovah with 
them. But their return is to precede their conversion 
according to the prophec}^ Zechariah, describing their 
return, says, and I will pour upon the house ot 
David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the 
spirit of grace and supplication ; and they shall look 
upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn 
for him as one mourneth for his only son. ' ' Zech. 12 : 10. 

Hear also, the plain language of Jesus Christ. After 
upbraiding the Jews for their unbelief, and foretelling 
the fearful judgment that was to come upon them. He 
cries — ''Behold your house is left unto you desolate, 
for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till 
ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
the Lord." Math. 23: 39. Surely, this implies that 
the time is coming when they^ shall hail his messengers 
as bearers of good news. The language of the apostle 
Paul is equally explicit and significant, — ''and they 
also, (the Jews) if they abide not still in unbelief, shall 
be grafted in : for God is able to graft* them in again. 
For if thou (the Gentile) wert cut out of the 
olive tree which is wild b}^ nature, and wert 



STEPS TOWARD THE END. 8o 

graffecl contrarv to nature into a good olive tree ; how 
much more shall these (the Jews) which be the natural 
branches be graifed into their own olive tree? For I 
would not, brethreu, that ve should be is^uorant of this 
n^yster}', (the rejection of the Jews for a time) lest ye 
should be wise in yoiu* own conceits, that blindness in 
part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gen- 
tiles be come in. And so ail Israel shall be saved, as 
it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliver- 
er, and shall turn avvay ungodliness from Jacob. For 
this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away 
their sins." Rom. 11: 23-27. If language can ex- 
press any [wsitive meaning, sureh^ this declares, that 
*'God hath not cast away His people which He fore- 
knew," but that the time is coming when they, so 
marvelously preserved among the nations, shall own 
the King they once rejected. On this event also, — the 
restoration of the Jews to their covenant privileges — 
depends the complete triumph of Christianity, This 
is what Paul declares — *'Now if the fall of them be the 
riches of the world, and the diminishing of them, the 
riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness ? 
If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the 
world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from 
the dead?" Rom. 11: 12-15. Great indeed is the 
indebtedness of the Gentile world to the Jew. We are 
the heirs of his riches, greater than all we have re- 
ceived from the people of Egypt and Ass^aia, of Greece 
and Rome. That old Book full of the records of the chos- 
en people, has done far more for us than Homer's songs, 
or the classic pages of Heroditus and Thucydides. 
Better far than Grecian culture, are Israel's laws. For 



86 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

US David still sings the matchless songs of Zion, and 
Isaiah utters the entreaties and warnino^s of the livino; 
God. From the Jew we have received the lano:uao:e 
and imageiy that express our highest and noblest con- 
ception of spiritual things. His cries of old are the 
models for our prayers ; his ritual the best s}- mbol of our 
spiritual life. The names of his mountains express 
our souls' elevation or fears : his river marks the 
boundary of our mortal life, and the name of his chief 
city tells us of our everlasting home. Of the Jew we 
have received patriarchs and kings, grander than all 
the heroes of Greece and Rome, the men of royal lives 
w^ho still show us how true greatness is to be won. 
And more than all, from the Jew "as concerning the 
flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for- 
ever.*' 

But there is a sad break in his history. For eighteen 
centuries he has done nothing for the world. He has 
lived in exile— not a leader or a teacher among men. 
The only notable exceptions to this rule are those who 
have renounced Judaeism for Christianity. But a 
better day is coming. The Apostle assures us that the 
world will receive an additional blessing from the Jew^ 
thi^ough his conversion. ''What shall the receiving of 
them be but life from the dead ! " It will be like a glorious 
resurrection, so wonderful will the effect of their con- 
version be upon the world. This event then, lies 
between the present and the millennial era; nor judg- 
ing the future fulfillment of prophecy by the past, 
is it likely to be brought about in a day. I do not 
affirm that it is not now in process of fulfillment. It 
may be so. Certain it is that from some cause or 



STEPS TOWARD THE END. 87 

causes, there is an increasing tide of Jews going back 
to Palestine. Statistics show that in A. D. 1858 there 
were only 20,000 there ; in A. D. 1863, 100,000; and 
now the number is estimated as high as 200,000. We 
can readily understand, if the rule of the Moslem were 
utterly removed from Palestine, and the blessings of a 
just government carried there, how the process of re- 
turn would be much more rapid. But there is no hint 
given that it is to be sudden and in one bod}' like the 
Exodus. On the contrary, the prophetic type of it is, 
the return from the Babylonian captivitj'. Jeremiah 
describes it in this manner — ''Behold, I will send for 
many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them ; 
and after, will I send for many hunters, and they shall 
hunt them from ever}^ mountain, and from everj^ hill, 
and out of the holes of the rocks." The idea here is, 
that a variety of causes in God's pro^ddence shall move 
them to return. Some are drawn, and some are driven ; 
some caught by this bait and others by that. Singij^, or 
in groups they go. It is then no objection to the belief 
that the Jews will return to the land of there fathers, 
because multitudes of them cherish no such desire, or 
expectation. On the contrary, this is just what the 
prediction of Jeremiah would lead us to expect. Why 
should God send ''fishers to fish them," and "hunters" 
to drive them home, if they were ready and waiting as 
soon as the way was prepared? If you want to find 
out God's purposes of mercy, do not look to the heart 
of an unconverted and rebellious man to find them. 
So if you wish to find out the purposes of his grace 
concerning his ancient people, do not listen to the cry 
of their unbelief, but to the testimony of the Divine 



88 THi: EASTERN QUESTION. 

Word. Stout hearted they are in their rejectioa of the 
gospel truth; who can change them? But it is writ- 
ten, — ''God is able to graff them in again." But cer- 
tain it is that the millennial song will not rise up from 
this earth, the scene of so many conflicts and wars, 
imtil the voice of the Je^v joins in the praises of Him 
who was crucified for man's sins on Calvary's hill. 

II. The second event to be fulfilled before the mil- 
lennial era, is that recorded in Rev. 16 : 19-21. It is 
also described more minutelj' in the eighteenth 
chapter. It is the overthrow of that which St. John 
calls -'Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and 
abominations of the earth." Let me read 3^ou the 
description wdiich the revelator gives of this m3'sterious 
power which was to rise up within the Church, and to 
continue until the millennial time. He designates it ar 
'Hhe great w^hore that sitteth upon many waters." A 
lewd woman is the symbol of an idolatrous system or 
church ; the true Church is the bride, the Lamb's wife. 
The prophets, whose s^anbolic language John uses, 
universally call idolatr^^, lewdness. The angle explains 
his own language, "He saith unto me, the waters w4iich 
thou sawest where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and 
multitudes, and nations, and tongues ; and the woman 
wdiich thou sawest is that great city which reign eth over 
the kings of the earth." She is described as arrayed 
in roj^al apparel, the emblem of sovereignty. "The 
woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, having 
a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and 
filthiness of her fornications," that is, presenting some- 
thing particularly attractive and seductive to all w^ho 
approached her, but which after all was deadly and 



STEPS TOWARD THE END. 89 

unclean. She is described "as drunken with the blood 
of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus." Eyidently it is a power which rejoiced in per- 
secuting the children of God. Her place of abode is 
described; "the seven heads are seven mountains, on 
which the woman sitteth." 

Again it is pictured as a power holding many of 
God's people in some way under its control, for the 
voice from heaven is — "Come out of her my people, that 
ye be not partakers of her sins. ' ' Paul, in his second let- 
ter to the Thessalonians, gives a description of this same 
power. He calls it, "that man of sin who opposeth 
and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or 
that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the 
temple of God, showing himself that he is God." 
Manifestly, this is the description of some power that 
claims the prerogatives which God alone can exercise, 
and that exalts itself above the revealed Word of God. 
Daniel describes this same power, as growing up in the 
last days of the Roman empire; as "speaking great 
words against the most High" — ^that is, speaking blas- 
phemously against God's honor, and by its utterances 
proclaiming doctrines contrary to the Divine Word ; as 
"wearing out the saints of the Most High," — that is, it 
was to be a persecutor of those who believe in Christ ; 
as ' 'thinking to change times and laws ; " it would 
attempt legislation in religious matters, thus usurping 
the prerogatives of God. The description of this 
mysterious power is given at great length, and with much 
minuteness in the Scriptures : but it is not my purpose 
to dwell upon it. Whatever it may be, it is to appear, 
and to reign according to Daniel's prophecy, for a 



90 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

period of 1250 years, and then be destroyed, before 
the millennial era shall come. Very positive is Paul's 
language on this point ; — ''now we beseech you, breth- 
ren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our 
gathering together unto Him, that je be not soon 
shaken in mind, or be troubled neither by spirit, nor by 
word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of 
Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any 
means ; for that day shall not come, except there come 
a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, 
the son of perdition ; who opposeth and exalteth him- 
self above all that is called God." 

"Remember ye not that when I was with you, I told 
you these things ? And now ye know what withholdeth, 
that he might be revealed in his time. For the mys- 
tery of iniquit}^ doth already work ; only he who now 
letteth, will let, until he be taken out of the way ; and 
then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall 
consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy 
with the brightness of his coming." II. Thes. 2 : 1-8. 

Has this power appeared in history ? Evidently it is 
not paganism, for that was before Paul's time. Nor is 
it Mahometanism ; that did not grow up within the 
church. Some have applied it to certain Roman em- 
perors, but manifestly, incorrectly, for they were all 
dead more than a thousand years ago, and the millennium 
has not come. Some have said that it was Lutheran- 
ism, and that Luther was Anti-christ. But evidently 
the description does not apply to him. He never ob- 
tained supremacy over the kings of the earth, nor did 
he live in splendor, nor did he persecute the saints of 
God, nor did he claim divine powers, nor was his pow- 



STEPS TOWARD THE END. 91 

er seated in a great city with seven hills. He never 
claimed authority to act as God alone has the right to 
do. As for example, he never asserted the right to a 
supreme authority over the consciences of men, for God 
alone is the Lord of the conscience. He never claimed 
power to forgiv^e sins, and absolve men from guilt, for 
God alone can forgive sins. He never claimed to be 
infallible in spiritual truth, for that is God's preroga- 
tive. He never made himself greater than God, in 
that he sold pardons for a price, to sinful men. He 
never taught that men might worship images, or saints, 
or departed spirits, and thus led them into idolatrous 
worship. I freely admit that had he claimed to do all 
this, and had he acquired rule and authority over the 
nations and kings of the earth, he would have had the 
marks described in the prophecy. This "Man of Sin" 
is described as "working signs, and lying wonders" — 
that is, claiming miraculous power. The only approx- 
imation, or at least the only thing that could possibly 
be supposed to look toward this in Luther's historj^, 
was the claim, that in his ministrations, he could by 
uttering certain words, mysteriously inclose in a spmt- 
ual manner, the Lord of all in a certain portion of 
bread and wine, and then hand it over to a fellow man 
to be eaten. But this was only a faint approximation 
to a greater wonder constantly wrought by others. 
Would you know what is the great miracle of all his- 
tory ? Many wonders are recorded in the Divine Word, 
but this in strangeness transcends them all. That was 
a glorious manifestation of divine power which ac- 
companied the word of Peter when he bade the lame 
man at the Gate Beautiful, rise and walk. Immediately 



92 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

his ancle bones received strength. But still it was a 
living man restored to himself. Wonderful was the dis- 
play of divine power at the grave of Lazarus ! Jesus 
prayed and then commanded the dead man to come 
forth, and he came. But still it was a dead man that was 
raised, not a stone or a clod turned into a man. But 
behold a miracle that overshadows all these ! A man 
lays before him a wafer made of flour. He prays, 
speaks a sentence, and lo ! the flour is turned into a 
a God — an object that can be worshipped ; it is the 
real body and blood and soul of Him who is enthroned 
in glory. This, my friends, is the most stupendous of 
all miracles, or else, ''a lying wonder," exercising a de- 
lusive power over multitudes. — No, it would so far as the 
prophecy is concerned, be without a warrant to call 
Luther, ''the man of sin," ''Babylon the Great," and 
"the harlot drunken with the blood of martyrs." If 
we could find in the history of Christendom, some 
great, controlling idolatrous power, growing up in the 
church itself, from causes that were working in Paul's 
time ; if we could find it enthroned in some imperial 
city, reigning over many nations and peoples, bringing 
kings into alliance with it, and living royally ; if we could 
find within it and under its control, many of God's peo- 
ple, who are called upon "to come out of her;" if we 
could find this power persecuting the saints of God, and 
rejoicing over the slaughter of thousands slain on account 
of their faith in Jesus Christ, as the only mediator ; if 
we could find it speaking and acting as none but God is 
able to do, — all reasonable and fair minded men would 
say, that it was the counterpart of that described in 
the prophecy. But even should you find just such a 



STEPS TOWARD THE END. 93 

power revealed in history, jou. must also be able to say 
that it is already consumed by the Spirit proceeding- 
out of Christ's mouth — that is, wasted away by the 
light from his Holy Word — before you can assert that 
the millennial day is at hand. It must be remembered 
too, that this process of consuming by the Word is a 
slow one. Error smolders and smokes long in the fires 
of truth. No, the end is not yet. Doubtless we are 
nearing the longed-for day. The processes that hast- 
en it are moving with increased speed, as the ^^ears go 
by. We have, indeed, man^^ signs of encouragement, 
and gleams come that seem to herald the morning. 
But still we must wait. The chart tells us that man}" 
untraveled leagues lie between us and the harbor. 

If what I have said be true, then the opinion held 
b}^ many godly and devoted men and women, that we 
may expect Christ to appear in the clouds at any mo- 
ment, is not correct. 

If what I have said be the testimony of God's Word, 
then there remains for all who love the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and look for his appearing, a time for earnest 
labor, and patient witness-bearing ; for upon the pra}^- 
ers of His people is hinged the fulfillment of his 
glorious promises with regard to the future. We are 
to "hasten unto the coming of the Lord," by the faith- 
ful and diligent use of the instrumentalities appointed 
by Him for the establishment of his kingdom. Our Lord 
has said,-' 'This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and 
then shall the end come." But to us He has said, 
''Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to 
every creature." Thus are we to hasten the end. 



94 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

Does the conclusion, that we are not to expect the 
second coming of our Lord immediately, remove a fear 
and bring a sense of relief to any? O, glorious Re- 
deemer ! and is it so that men for whom thou hast 
died, that thou mayest exalt them to thine own glory, 
are relieved to know that' thou delayest thy coming ! 
Are these they of whom thou didst speak when thou 
saidst — ''But, and if that evil servant shall say in his 
heart my Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin 
to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with 
the drunken, the lord of that servant shall come in 
a daj^ when he looketh not for him, and in an horn- 
that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and 
appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There shall 
be weeping and gnashing of teeth?" Yes, there is 
''a coming of Christ," that may surprise us any mo- 
ment. We know not what moment we may stand in His 
presence. But with what sad and terrible svn*prise 
must it come to the faithless and unbelieving man, who 
refused to stand as a witness for Christ's grace, and a 
worker in his cause ! 



Lecture VI. 



®hc Milkiittial 1 




[Rev. 20 : 1-7.] 

AND I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the 
bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 

2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the 
Devil, and Satan, and bonnd him a thousand years. 

3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a 
seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the 
thousand years should be lulfllled : and after that he must be loosed a 
little season. 

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was giv- 
en unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the 
witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not wor- 
shipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark 
upon their foreheads, or in their hands ; and they lived and reigned 
Avith Christ a thousand years. 

5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years 
were finished . This is the first resurrection. 

6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on 
such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God 
and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. 

7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed 
out of his prison. 

THE Scriptures, as we have already seen, predict the 
coining of a time when the kingdoms of this world 

shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. 

(95) 



96 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

The gospel is destined to exercise a wider and more glo- 
rious control over the affairs of this world, than has as yet 
been manifested in history. Somewhere in the future 
lies a bright and happy period when the true Church 
of God, having passed through the time of judgment 
and conflict, and embracing ^dthout distinction both Jew 
and Gentile in its fellowship, shall be the ruling power 
in the earth. Nations will be christian ; and laws and 
government be molded and guided by the spirit of 
the gospel. Men of Christlike mind shall rule, and the 
kingdoms of the earth, no longer hostile, shall minis- 
ter to the cause of Christ, Ignorance and superstition, 
oppression and misrule with their attendant ills, shall 
disappear, and the rule of which the angels sang when 
their joyful chorus proclaimed, "on earth peace, good 
will to men," shall be established in glorious power. 
This period, according to the plain sense of the Script- 
ures, lies somewhere between the present time and 
"the end." It is not to be confounded with the era 
of eternal glory, which is to come after the end of the 
world and the final judgment. In other words, it is not 
heaven, but a triumph of Christ' s kingdom on earth. The 
prophets speak of it in language which while highly 
figurative and obscure in many respects, still leaves the 
the deep and positive impression upon the reader, that 
such a time is sure to come. The belief that it is com- 
ing, is a deep-seated one in the heart of the waiting 
Church. It has always made her confident of ultimate 
triumph, and earnest in her labors. It moves her to 
pray in confidence, "Thy kingdom come." It lives in 
her gladdest songs. All believers sing as in one grand 
chorus — 



THE MILLENNIAL ERA. 97 

' 'Behold the mountain of the Lord 

In latter da^^s shall rise, 
On mountain tops above the hills, 

And draw the wondering eyes. 

The beams that shine from Zion's hill 

Shall lighten every land ; 
The King who reigns in Salem's towers 

Shall all the world command. 

No strife shall vex Messiah's reign 

Or mar the peaceful years, 
To plow shares men shall beat their swords, 

To pruning-hooks their spears." 

In this twentieth chapter of the Revelation, we find 
the most minute account which the New Testament gives 
of the period commonly called the Millennium. A care- 
ful comparison of the description given by St. John of 
this event, and that recorded by Daniel in the seventh 
chapter of his prophecies, will show that both prophets 
agree as to the time and manner of its coming to pass. 
Daniel proclaims that after the destruction of ''the 
fourth beast," that is, the last of the hostile kingdoms 
of the world, and of the "anti-Christ," then "the king- 
dom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom 
under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of 
the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an ever- 
lasting kingdom and all dominions (lit. rulers) shall 
serve and obey Him. Dan. 7: 27. In hke manner 
St. John, aft^r recording the overthrow of the mj^stical 
Babylon, the type of an apostate church (Rev. 18), 
and the destruction of "the beast" and the false 
prophet (Rev. 19: 19-21), announces the reign of 



98 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

Christ. The old and hostile powers having been des- 
troyed, new '-thrones" are set iq3, and jndgment and 
rale given to them. Their occupants are the same as 
those described by Daniel. This much is not only 
plain from the Word of God, but it finds its confirma- 
tion in the facts of history. We all know that if the 
gospel, by its holy principles, is to reign supreme 
among the affairs of men, there must be a mighty 
shaking and overturning of the present order of things. 
Nothing short of the absolute destruction of many 
things that now exist, and the reconstruction and re- 
modeling of both Church and State, in many important 
respects, could make such a rule possible. Take our 
own system of free government, of which we boast as 
being conformable to the teachings of the gospel, and who 
will dare say that either in its laws, or in their adminis- 
tration, it gives us a true embodiment of the gi'eat 
principles of justice and truth, of liberty and law^ 
taught in this Word? It would be a mockery of our 
best and brightest hopes for the future to say that the 
language of prophecy concerning the gospel dispensa- 
tion on earth meant no more, and that the gospel itself 
could do no more for society than is now realized. No, 
the mission of the gospel, as "a sword," is not yet 
exhausted. Still the Rider on the white horse, 
w^hose name is ' 'Faithful and True," and who "in right- 
eousness doth judge and make war," must go forth on 
his mission of overturning and conquest. Still, "out 
of his mouth" must issue "the sharp sword to smite 
the nations." It is the Divine Word, "which is quick 
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword," 
which is to smite everything tliat makes war against the 



THE MILLENNIAL ERA. 99 

Rider and opposes his kingdom. Its mission through 
the ministration of the Holy Spirit, is to prepare the way 
for the empire of Peace. Thus, the present condition 
of the world confirms the testimony of prophecy, by 
proclaiming the necessity of those very changes and 
overturnings which prophecy said should be made in 
the last days, before the full triumph of the Gospel. 
And furthermore, we can see from history that if the 
process so beautifully described in the vision of the 
Rider on the white horse, (Rev. 19: 11-21) is carried 
on in the future as it has been in the past, it must end 
in the complete overthrow of all those powers tjq^ified 
by "the beast," and ''the false prophet," and "the 
harlot. ' ' What is the testimony of the history of the 
past four hundred years, since the Word of God has 
gone forth freely among the nations ? To say that it 
has not dispelled ignorance and superstition — that it 
has not broken the power of secular and ecclesiastical 
despotism — that it has not removed oppression and 
revolutionized society for the better, is to falsify the 
facts of history. What glorious conquests has it al- 
ready made ! The ' 'beastlj^' ' powers of the earth do 
indeed still make war against it ; but let the same pro- 
cess of progress and triumph continue, and every 
candid reader of history must say that all opposi- 
tion is doomed to that terrible overthrow predicted by 
St. John. I have alluded to the time and manner of the 
coming of the millenial era, because it has been stren- 
uously urged by some, that it is to be preceded and 
inaugurated by the personal and visible coming of tlie 
Lord Jesus, to reign on the earth. 

In their view, the means now used for the evangeliza- 



100 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

tion of the earth are not sufficient to bring aboul the 
millennial time. So far as the great result is con- 
cerned, they are a failure. Dr. Gumming, of London, 
a distinguished representative of this class, says : 
"Man}^ pious people think that all that is required to 
usher in the sunshine of the millennial day is to im- 
prove the Church, to renovate the State, circulate the 
Bible, and disseminate tracts ; and that the result of 
this will be a millennial condition such as the world 
has never reached. I do not believe in ultimate victory 
by any or all of these things." Again he says: ''We 
are looking for Christ and not the mere spread of Christ- 
ianit}'." All this is simply a disparagement of the 
means appointed and blest by the great Head of the 
Church for the extension of his kingdom, and the con- 
version of men. The gospel nowhere teaches that the 
personal advent of Christ, in the glory of the second 
coming, is to convert the world. The splendor of his 
appearing will, indeed, fill sinners with fear, terror and 
despair, but it will not add one to the number of those 
who already believe. In the description which St. John 
gives of the causes which bring about the complete over- 
throw of the kingdoms of the world, and of the false 
prophet, we search in vain for any thing that indicates 
the ^dsible appearance of the Lord Jesus. There is 
indeed a special manifestation of divine power, other 
than that proceeding from the Word and the ministry 
of the Holy Ghost, which secures the establishment of 
millennial peace ; but it is one exerted, not on men, 
but on Satan, the great adversary. The Word of God 
is a revelation for men, not for devils ; so after it has 
accomplished its mission of revolutionizing the world 



THE MILLENNIAL ERA. 101 

and casting down its hostile powers, another and a 
different agency is described as restraining the adver- 
sary who worked through men, and who raised up and 
animated ''the beast" and "the false prophet." It is 
simply an act of sovereign power by which Satan is 
''bound." The power of the "Prince of this world" 
is restrained. We may fairly conclude from the des- 
cription, that the angel or messenger who does this is 
none other than the Lord Jesus himself. At least it is 
a power direct from heaven that binds the great de- 
stroyer, who has hitherto been permitted to exercise his 
wiles on the children of men. It is one who carries in 
his hands the emblem of powers which belong exclus- 
ively to the Lord. It is the enthroned "Son of Man," 
who says in the beginning of the revelations, "I am he 
that liveth and was dead : and behold I am alive for 
evermore. Amen; and have the keys of hell and 
death." (Rev. 1: 18.) These keys He may intrust 
to a messenger ; but the power they represent is His. 
But evidently the whole transaction here described is a 
spiritual one. We must not think of literal chains 
holding a spirit, or of its confinement with visible locks 
and seals. The meaning manifestly is, that by a direct 
exercise of divine power, Satan shall be so restrained 
that he shall not, as hitherto, be able to deceive the 
nations of the earth. Two causes, then, according to 
St. John, prepare the way for the estabhshment of the 
millennial era : the word of God, operating upon men 
through the ministration of the Spirit, and the power 
of God in restraining the power of Satan. If, as some 
claim, the visible coming of Christ is the chief cause, 
how strange that the Revelator omitted it altogether : 



102 THE p:asteem question. 

But what does the MillenDium imply? What is to 
come to pass during the ''thousand 3^ears?" Here it 
becomes us to speak with caution. Multitudes give 
reign to their fancy, and speak with confidence of the 
details of that coming time, as though they were e3'e- wit- 
nesses of its glory. It is not strange that it should be 
so, for it is much easier to expound unfulfilled proph- 
ecy, provided the day of fulfillment is postponed long 
enough, than it is to apply fulfilled prophecy. Jesus 
Christ said to those w^ho accused him in their hearts of 
blasphemy, because he assumed to forgive the sins of 
the man who was lying helpless before him, ''Which is 
easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, 
Arise and walk ?' ' Evidently it was easier for one hav- 
ing di\dne power to say "Thy sins be forgiven thee," 
for if a pretender, only the issue of the -judgment day 
could prove that he had no power. But if he said to a 
helpless paralytic, "Arise now and walk," the imme- 
diate result would be the test of his power. So if 
one expounds fulfilled prophecy, he must have a care 
lest another confront him with the facts of history, and 
prove him ignorant or mistaken. But much easier is 
it for him to dogmatize concerning the prediction of 
events a thousand years to come, for who can prove 
him false by confronting him with the reality? Instead, 
then, of attempting to speculate, and appealing to the 
future for the truth of our fancies, let us consider hon- 
estly the testimony of this Word. It is on the passage 
before us, (Rev. 30: 1-7) that the doctrine of the mil- 
lenium, as such is founded. The language employed 
by the revelator is highly figurative, and much of it is 
obscure. We can, therefore, put a great variety of 



THE MILLENNIAL ERA. 103 

meaning into it, but if we would be honest interpreters, 
we must be careful to draw out of it that only which 
agrees with the general teachings of the Scriptures, 
especially remembering the wise rule, that we are to 
interpret what is obscure in the light of that which is 
plain. 

1. We learn from this prophecy, that the millennium 
is to be a time when the power of evil is to be greatly 
limited and restrained. As already intimated, the 
great agencies through which Satan hitherto wrought to 
deceive and destroy men having been cast down, he 
will not be permitted to raise up new ones. Ignorance 
and superstition, licentiousness and intemperance, war 
and misrule, skepticism and atheism, shall no lon- 
ger be the satanic instruments for the destruction of 
countless thousands of the race. There was a time, 
described in these \asions, w^hen Satan seemed to reign , 
supreme ; but in the new age, the very reverse is to 
come to pass. We are not, however, to understand 
that during this period the power of evil is completely 
destroyed. It is only "bound" for a period, and after- 
wards breaks forth with peculiar violence. Evil will 
still be in the world. There is no intimation that hu- 
man nature will not be the same then as now, needing 
divine grace to convert and sanctify it ; unless, indeed, 
we accept the \4ew held by some, that the ''resur- 
rection" spoken of is a literal one, by which human 
nature is glorified. The scene of the vision is still ''on 
earth," with its nations exposed to temptation and sin. 

2. It is to be the time of a new rule or authority in 
society ; a time when righteous men shall have the su- 
preme control. ''And I saw thrones^ and they sat upon 



104 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

them,'' It is not said who sat upon tiiem, but we can 
fairly gather from what follows that the occupants of 
the "thrones/' the emblems of supreme power, are 
those described as if they had been martyrs beheaded 
for the witness of Jesus, and had not in any way yield- 
ed themselves servants to the power of the god of this 
world. In the sixth verse they are described as the 
fruits of ''Hlie first resurrection,'' They are "the 2^riests 
of God and of Christy" and 'Hhey shall reign with him 
a thousand years, ' ' Whatever may be taught by this 
language, one thing is certain — it presents us with a 
picture of the world the very reverse of that drawn by 
the same hand, of its condition previous to the millen- 
nial time. One of the accusations brought against the 
first missionaries of the Gospel was, '^These that have 
turned the world upside down are come hither," And 
here, as an effect of the Gospel, we have the picture 
of the world "upside down," but after all with the 
right side up. Formerl}^ Satan was unbound and rag- 
ing like a lion, seeking w^hom he might devour ; but 
now he is bound. In the old order, the kings of the 
earth, influenced and controlled by the "beast," and 
the dragon, and the false prophet, ruled ; but now the}^ 
are "cast down," and new "thrones" are set up. In 
the former age, St. John saw "the souls of them that 
were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony 
which they held;" but then they were "under the al- 
tar" — that is, in the place of sacrifice and supplication, 
crying "with a loud voice," as in agony and trouble, 
"How long Oh Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not 
judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the 
earth?" — [Rev. 6: 10.] But now he sees these same 



THE MILLENNIAL ERA. 105 

souls no longer in trouble and sorrow, but enthroned 
and ruling in the very world where they were slain. 
Formerly those who would not worship the beast were 
killed, and ^'no man might buy or sell, save he that had 
the mark of the beast." [Rev. 13: 15-17.] Their 
condition was one of danger and bondages. But now 
they are to sit on ''thrones," they are ''to live and 
reign." 

Imagine a condition of society in which men like 
Paul and Peter, like Huss and Luther, like Knox and 
Wesley — I mean, like them, not in their imperfections, 
but in their bold, outspoken and unfaltering attachment 
to the truth as it is in Jesus — are to be the rulers and 
leaders ; imagine a state in which those men who have 
refused to yield either their "heads" or their "hands" 
as the instruments of unrighteousness, are chief in 
honor and power ; in short, a condition in which the 
power of evil shall not only be in its minimum, but in 
which it shall seem as if all the noblest spirits of the 
past, the men who were boldest, most outspoken, zeal- 
ous and uncompromising in the service of Christ, were 
alive, and controlling human affairs in accordance with 
the mind and will of Christ, and you will have the spirit- 
ual reality which this prophecy describes. If this be 
what the revelator means in general, his description 
accords precisely with the plain testimony of Scripture. 

Daniel says, "The people of the saints of the most 
High" shall possess the kingdom. "In His days," 
writes the Psalmist, "shall the righteous flourish." 
"Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him ; all nations 
shall serve Him. ' ' ' 'The meek shall inherit the earth. ' ' 

Thus far you will agree with me, whatever interpret- 



106 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

ation you may hold of other parts of the language 
here used. But, you ask, does it not mean much more ? 
Is there not some new and supernatural element char- 
acterizmg this promised era, which we do not and can- 
not realize in society as now constituted ? Undoubted- 
ly this language, as well as that used elsewhere in the 
Scriptures, implies something more than a general and 
widespread knowledge of the Gospel, and the conse- 
quent elevation of society, and the infusion of a better 
spirit into existing governments, both in Church and 
State. A fair interpretation of it in the connection in 
which it stands, demands a remodeling of society, the 
destruction of much that remains, and the rebuilding 
according to a new rule. The change from the present 
to that blessed period of triumph and peace, involves 
a shaking of earthly things to their foundations, "that 
those things which can not be shaken," the things of 
God, may ''remain." It is not possible for us to tell 
accurately, what will be the state of affairs in this 
world when ^ every thing comes under the power and 
direction of a living, practical Christianity. As the 
carnal element, the ''beastial" power of the world, is 
utterly overthrown, and the spiritual element gains the 
ascendency over human affairs, who can tell what 
new powers will be developed among men ; w^hat new 
beauty the race will put on, and how it shall seem as if 
the world had undergone a resurrection? The blessing 
promised to men through the Holy Spirit, has not yet 
been exhausted, and when in that day it shall come in all 
its wonderful fullness, it would not be strange that chang- 
es should be wrought in society, and in man's relation 
to the unseen world, of which we can not now conceive. 



THE MILLENNIAL ERA. 107 

The Scriptures give us hints of physical changes in 
nature that aid to make this coming era : 

'^The earth shall yield her increase." "It shall be 
fat and plenteous." ''The wilderness shall be a fruit- 
ful field." "The wilderness and the solitary places 
shall be glad for him, and the desert shall rejoice and 
blossom as the rose." It is true that these are chiefly 
poetical expressions representing the joy of nature, so 
long cursed by man's sins, in the sunny time of peace. 
But we can readily see that, with the cessation of des- 
olating wars, and the removal of oppression, and with 
the right direction of labor and capital, hitherto wast- 
ed, "showers of blessings" upon the earth would fol- 
low. The earth shows no sign of exhaustion, nor has 
man, as yet, found out a tithe of the riches of material 
treasures God has prepared for him in this world. The 
future will bring more wonderful inventions and dis- 
coveries than any in the past. Think for a moment 
that the past one hundred years have brought to us 
most of the discoveries of modern times, the inventions 
that characterize our age, and that have, in a sense, 
revolutionized society. What may we not, then, ex- 
pect from a future in which the conditions of develop- 
ment will be vastly more favorable ? 

But is there not something more than all this ? Are 
we not to expect the companionship of risen and glor- 
fied men ; and above all, in that glad period, wiU not 
Christ himself 9.ppear in his glory to dwell among 
men? There is indeed, a time when Christ shall dwell 
visibly among his people, when they "shall see his 
face," and be like him. That time is described by St. 
John in the last two chapters of the Revelation. But 



108 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

in the order observed by him, it is after the Millennium. 
In this description of the millennial time, there is not the 
sUghtesthint given of His dwelling on the earth, unless 
it is in the expression, 'Hhey reigned with Christ a thou- 
sand years. " Surely that is a very vague and shadowy 
ground upon which to base a doctrine that is not taught 
elsewhere in the Scriptures, in plain literal statements. 
How strange that St. John should have omitted from his 
description of the millennial time, that which, if true, 
would have been its chief and crowning feature — the vis- 
ible presence of the Lord Jesus ! He dwells lovingly 
upon that fact as constituting the chief glory of heaven, 
but he has nothing to say concerning it, in describing 
the time when, according to some interpreters, Christ is 
to dwell on the earth a thousand j^ears. Many have based 
upon the. language here used by the revelator, the- be- 
lief that Christ will come to reign visibly upon the 
earth ; that He will establish Himself as the head of a 
\4sible, external kingdom ; and that when He comes, the 
martyrs, or, as others believe, all who sleep in Jesus, shall 
be raised from the dead and reign with Him in His earth- 
ly kingdom ; and after this reign of one thousand years, 
the general resurrection, and final judgment will take 
place. This, with many modifications as to details, is 
what is known as the Pre-millennial advent tlieor^^ 
It is not to be denied that it has been held and advo- 
cated by many men, eminent for piety and biblical 
learning, from the da^^s of Irenaeus and Tertulhan to 
the present time. But while many things may be said 
in its favor, it is after all, a theory which finds its chief 
support from the literal application of what is plainly, 
highly figurative and symbolical language. It is not 



THE MILLENNIAL ERA. 109 

only unsupported by the plainer parts of Scripture, but 
it is in positive contradiction to many of its statements. 
Time will not permit me to point out these contradic- 
tions. I can only show you that this passage manifest- 
ly, does not assert the literal resurrection of the martyrs, 
or the visible reign of Christ. St. John tells us that 
he saw the "souls' ' of the martyrs — not their risen and 
glorified bodies. There is not the slightest hint given 
of so wonderful a fact as the resurrection of their bod- 
ies from their graves. Their souls live and reign — that 
is all. Admitting for a moment that this passage as- 
serts their resurrection, then we are shut up to the con- 
clusion that the martyrs alone are raised from the dead 
in "the first resurrection," and that they are to rule on 
the earth with Christ. All this is contrary to the plain 
testimony of St. Paul, who tells us that when Christ 
comes the second time, all the dead in Christ shall rise 
first ; that is, before the wicked ; that those who are 
alive and believe on him shall be changed and caught 
up into the air to meet the Lord, and so be forever with 
the Lord. 

Nor can we understand "the first resurrection" of 
which St. John speaks, to be that ' 'rising first" from the 
dead, of which St. Paul speaks. The time is not the 
same, nor are the efi'ects the same. St. John's descrip- 
tion of the resurrection of the dead is given further on, 
(Rev. 20: 11-14.) and as occurring long after this. 
And furthermore, that description accords perfectly 
with what Paul, and our Lord himself say about that 
great event. This "first resurrection," is evidently a 
symbolical one, descriptive of some great fact or con- 
dition in the millennial time. Now, what great char- 



110 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

acteristic fact in christian experience is there which 
would be scripturally s^^mbolized by "a resurrection," 
and which would specially belong to the peo]3le of the 
millennial time ? Happily, the Word of God furnishes 
the answer. It is regeneration. Hear the language of 
scripture (concerning this great fact. ''Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot 
see the kingdom of God." ''Verily, verily, I say un- 
to you, he that heareth my words and believeth on Him 
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come 
into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." 
John 5 : 24. ' 'And you hath He quickened who were 
dead in trespasses and sins. ^' * But God, who is 
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 
even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us to- 
gether with Christ, and hath raised us up together and 
made us to sit together in heavenly places in Jesus 
Christ." Eph. 2: 1-4-6. "If ye then be risen with 
Christ, seek those things which are above. " Col. 3: 1. 
Is not this that great change which can truly be 
called the "first resurrection?" Its effects are just 
those which St. John describes, ''Over such the second 
death hath no power,''' So Jesus testifies concerning 
his believing and regenerated people, — "they have 
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemna- 
tion." "-They shall he priests of God and of Christ,'^ 
So it is written of those who are "born again," "ye also, 
as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy 
priesthood." "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal 
priesthood." Who are ''blessed and holy'' among the 
children of men save those who have been renewed and 
sanctified by the Holy Ghost ? It is to such that the 



THE MILLENNIAL ERA. Ill 

Word of God gives these titles. Now, remembering 
that St. John is here giving the picture of ''a world 
turned upside down' ' by the gospel, how significant is 
his application of this term, "the first resurrection." 
Before, it was an unregenerated world, in which the vast 
multitudes were dead in trespasses and sins, and only a 
few lived. Now, the overwhelming multitudes are alive 
in Christ and only a few, the remainder, are dead. 
What wonder that in beholding a glad society of re- 
generated men, he should write, ''This is the first res- 
urrection." Behold these blessed and holy men ! They 
have eternal life ; over them the second death hath no 
power ; they are kings and priests unto the Lord for- 
ever. There is much more that I would like to say 
concerning the characteristics and the duration of this 
period, and the events to follow it, but time forbids me. 
From what has been said you can see that the glories of 
this coming time, are spiritual rather than material. 
They are not the splendors of outward estate or worldly 
abundance, but of minds and hearts, enlightened, re- 
newed, and sanctified by the grace of God. It is a 
triumphant spiritual kingdom in the world, but not of 
the world. 

If this be the true scriptural view, we can readily be 
sharers in what is the chief and essential blessing of 
that glad time. We can even now "see the kingdom 
of God." "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in 
the first resurrecticm." Yes, blessed is he who, by 
faith in Christ, has passed from death unto life, no 
matter whether he lives now or in the ages that shall 
witness the largest triumphs of the gospel. Were that 
glad time to begin suddenly, were it to break in noon- 



112 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

day splendor upon the world with the sunrise of the 
coming morning, it could not make you blessed unless 
you were born again. No coming of Christ in outward 
splendor ; no glor}^ of a transformed earth made beau- 
teous with more than Eden's greenness, can ever make 
a sinful, unbelieving heart happy, or turn it from death 
unto life. Would you have part in the millennial joys ? 
would you be among that blessed number who shall re- 
joice in the triumph and reign of Christ? Then you 
must have part in "the first resurrection." 

This view also gives us occa.sion for great rejoicing 
as we look toward the future. It is full of hope and 
blessedness for the race of man, and full of triumph 
for the cause of Christ. We look not only for the com- 
ing of the Sa\dor, but also for the spread of His gos- 
pel, until He shall have an innumerable seed to serve 
Him. The issue of the great work of redemption will 
not be seen in a little remnant saved, and in overwhelm- 
ing multitudes lost ; but in a ''great multitude" that 
no man can number, saved eternall}^, by the grace of 
God. The MilJennium will be a time of abundant 
sowing and reaping. The earth shall yield her increase 
in a glad harvest of souls, and the Redeemer of men 
shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. 



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